I really hope it's due to inflated regular season reporting. If it's underreporting in the playoffs then whoever is doing that is cutting the legs out of any attempt to make the tournament less regionalized and more of a true tournament format. The only way we get more seeds and less regionalization is if the tournament starts making more money and gate receipts is going to be the first step towards doing that.Originally Posted by JayJ79
Professor Chaos is a proud supporter of the 9-time NCAA Division 1 Football National Champion North Dakota State Bison.
Sidenote: The NCAA really needs to get off their butts and cut a net revenue-generating TV contract with either Fox Sports or NBC. Shoot, I bet Amazon or Facebook would be able to get a contract able to turn the FCS playoffs into a money maker without having to depend on ticket sales.
Their not going to listen, the SWAC has been saying that for almost 20 years but everyone chose to focus on our playoff record than what we were trying to tell them...Don't waste your time
You don't wanna
go to WAR with a soldier!
The NCAA does have a pretty lucrative TV deal with ESPN for all the NCAA championships other than men's basketball. It was reportedly worth $500M over roughly a 12 year period I believe: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...205614637.html
That includes 24 total NCAA championships but I'd imagine that the FCS playoffs are probably one of their better rated championships trailing probably the College World Series and the Women's basketball tournament (maybe volleyball and softball since those are big school events also but I think FCS ratings actually do even better than those). It runs through the 2024 season so that would be the earliest they could split out a TV deal for the FCS playoffs but my guess is they're happy with the financial arrangement they get for TV.
I'd prefer if ESPN would actually market the FCS playoffs a little better first or give it a little more time on the networks for the early rounds. I've said numerous times that I think they would do pretty well to devote about a 9 hour window (noon-9PM ET maybe) on ESPNU or ESPNEWS to FCS football for these first two playoff Saturdays and just switch back and forth between games depending on what's exciting.
It is promising that two FCS playoff TV spots have been "promoted" on the ESPN networks this year. The Saturday noon ET quarterfinal that got bumped from ESPN to ESPN2 last year is back on ESPN and the Saturday afternoon semifinal which has been on ESPNU for as long as I can remember was moved to ESPN2. The 30 minute Championship game pre-game show, which I think was only on ESPN3 as of a few years ago and on ESPNU last year was also moved to ESPN2 this year (same network as the championship game). I'm hoping that indicates that ESPN is seeing a little more value in FCS playoff broadcasts so they'll market it better and give it better TV spots in the future.
Professor Chaos is a proud supporter of the 9-time NCAA Division 1 Football National Champion North Dakota State Bison.
Three major factors can help explain the disparity:
1) Season tickets not a factor in the playoffs - these are counted in regular season games whether the holders show up or not. In the playoffs, you are starting from zero.
2) Students are gone. They also have to pay to atttend playoff games.
3) Lets face it, most people already have plans on a holiday weekend.
KSU won't show up, SDSU will get snowed on, I don't think any of the BSC teams pull more than 6k this weekend, NDSU will NDSU
UCD's lowest home attendance this season was 7300. They had over 10,000 when they played Idaho State. I have to imagine after the long wait to return to the playoffs that they'll have a good showing there, especially considering this might be their only home game. They even stayed over 6500 for all of last season.
Weber State had nearly 7000 when they hosted WIU over Thanksgiving weekend last season. I'd assume they'd want to bring the crowd back again this year and their numbers usually stay pretty consistent around 8000 from September to November.
EWU, it's hard to tell. It really depends on the weather as those poor fans don't like to venture outside when it gets below 40.For example, in 2016 their best attended playoff game was their first game even though they played QF and SF home games.
Maine had 8000 the last time they hosted a playoff game. Granted, that was against New Hampshire in the second round, so that boosted the numbers.
2023 AGS Playoff Pick'em Results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing
2023 AGS Pick'em Standings: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing
Too bad we can't host the Griz in the playoffs every year....UCD's lowest home attendance this season was 7300. They had over 10,000 when they played Idaho State. I have to imagine after the long wait to return to the playoffs that they'll have a good showing there, especially considering this might be their only home game. They even stayed over 6500 for all of last season.
Weber State had nearly 7000 when they hosted WIU over Thanksgiving weekend last season. I'd assume they'd want to bring the crowd back again this year and their numbers usually stay pretty consistent around 8000 from September to November.
EWU, it's hard to tell. It really depends on the weather as those poor fans don't like to venture outside when it gets below 40.
Maine had 8000 the last time they hosted a playoff game. Granted, that was against New Hampshire in the second round, so that boosted the numbers.
Jeez, do they play that in the Superdome?
Little sad to see Nicholls barely crack 8500 since there was over 9,000 last week for the River Bell Classic. No disrespect to a great rivalry game but the PLAYOFFS should be an even bigger deal. I couldn't attend due to illness (curses) but a friend said he had to park further than he's ever had to park before. I figured this put us north of 10k. Wrong.
Yes Sir.
RAH RAH WEE KICK EM IN THE KNEE RAH RAH RASS KICK EM IN.....THE OTHER KNEE
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