IIRC, a school must average 15K fans (or tickets sold) to maintain FBS status. [Note: I confirmed this in a USA Today article [url]http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2006/08/football_attend.html[/url]] Likewise, FCS teams can move up to FBS if they meet the same criteria over a period of time. Western Kentucky is in that process right now.
According to the NCAA, USU averaged 13,131 fans last year.
After a quick internet search, I could only find attendance figures (via USU's newspaper) for 2005: 10,896.
This topic comes up on occasion. USU HOME attendance is the 13K you mentioned. I do think however the NCAA counts ALL games attendance including AWAY games. So when the play in Provo at 60K or Oklahoma @ 80K their numbers end up being higher. That then keeps them above the 15K requirement. Schools that are in danger of not meeting that attendance requirement receive notification that they are not meeting that. To this date from what I have heard USU has never received that "warning" letter.
A Football Bowl Subdivision institution shall average at least 15,000 in actual OR paid
attendance for all home football contests over a rolling two-year period. [Bylaw 20.9.7.3]
why don't they schedule us to play at their stadium...surely that would help their "average" attendance.
I would have said that they should schedule Utah, but on second thought, that would probably pull down their average! The Utes can't even fill up their own place...I doubt they'd travel to Cache Valley.
I'm just not sure why USU and every other small state school including Western Kentucky need to be in the FBS or what ever it's called now. Somehow there's this perception that if they are in the FBS it's their ticket to $ and football glory. It makes much more sence to me for them to be the big fish in the little pond and that way they can play for a true championship.
