Attendance figures...do we pad 'em?

[vpackrats]

I'm doing a little late night math to see if we're in danger of not making the 15,000/per game NCAA requirement. Here's what we've got so far ...

23,112 against Tulsa

17,644 against Troy

14,153 against Louisiana-Lafayette

That means we have to total 20,091 over our next two games to hit the 15,000 per game goal. I think we'll make it ... which kinda switches to my main topic -- do you think we pad our attendance totals? Those attendance figures look on point to me from what I saw in the stands for each of our 3 home games. I think this is important because if that's an accurate count, good for North Texas!

I know some colleges who will go nameless (SMU) pad their counts pretty good to make things look more impressive than they really are & I like North Texas' integrity when it comes to BIS (butts-in-seats) counts rather than random numbers. From your view of the stadium, do ya'll feel our counts are accurate too from the games you've attended?

[Michael Scott]

I'm doing a little late night math to see if we're in danger of not making the 15,000/per game NCAA requirement.  Here's what we've got so far ...

23,112 against Tulsa

17,644 against Troy

14,153 against Louisiana-Lafayette

That means we have to total 20,091 over our next two games to hit the 15,000 per game goal.  I think we'll make it ... which kinda switches to my main topic -- do you think we pad our attendance totals?  Those attendance figures look on point to me from what I saw in the stands for each of our 3 home games.  I think this is important because if that's an accurate count, good for North Texas!

I know some colleges who will go nameless (SMU) pad their counts pretty good to make things look more impressive than they really are & I like North Texas' integrity when it comes to BIS (butts-in-seats) counts rather than random numbers.  From your view of the stadium, do ya'll feel our counts are accurate too from the games you've attended?

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This year - probably not. Last year - I think so.

The other thing is they have so many methods to count that all times use that I think almost every team (pro or college) has a built in overstatement in the software programs when they run numbers.

Look at the "sold out" Stars games this year or SMU.

[Zeke]

I feel the are very accurate. From game to game, what I see is in proportion to other games announced attendance. (i.e. if Tulsa was 24K, then Troy looked probably right in the 17K mark). I agree that it is good that we print out actual numbers.

I don't think we would if the number got dreadfully low though.

[NT80]

I think the reported numbers by NT are very close. I always try to guess the crowds. They are pretty easy to predict at Fouts the way the stands are set up. With 10K on each sideline and 5K each endzone, you just have to imagine moving all the crowd together then you get the estimate.

I've seen some TV games where the reported attendance was obviously NOT the actual attendance. UAB in a game last year was horribly over estimated, but this year schools can use either actual attendance or tickets sold.

[KingDL1]

Stebo pointed out to me that NCAA total average attendance per game restrictions will either be dropped or never enforced anyway. I believe he is right, but D1A football is an expensive game and whether a school can afford to maintain a team or not may be what actually kills a bad program.

I don't think we will have over 15,000 for homecoming and the Saturday after Thanksgiving maybe 8,000 if we are lucky. If the weather is cold and rainy you could see as few as 2,500. If we get low enough they will likely pad or use the tickets sold edge or both.

[FirefightnRick]

I think our announced attendance numbers are very close to accurate.

But speaking of padding numbers, I challenge SMU or anyone else to match the padding that the Fort Worth Bowl officials threw out last year during their version of the "ICE BOWL". What was crazy was that I had a feeling there would be some major BS with the next day's attendance announcement so I walked around, as best I could without busting my ass on the ice, and took a lot of pictures. There was maybe 3 to 4,000 at best, yet the Startlegram listed the announced crowd at 27,902? WHAT?

Rick

[VideoEagle]

I'm pretty sure the Ft Worth Bowl was announcing the tickets sold/distributed.

I think we switched to BIS count last year. We are still allowed by NCAA to count tickets sold as long as they are sold at a price that falls within certain restrictions. They can't be too deeply discounted.