FCS Playoffs Round 1 Attendance

[JackJD]

Traditionally, FCS playoff games have not been well attended. The first round is hobbled by the proximity to Thanksgiving. I suppose subsequent rounds have unique reasons for poor attendance in tmost, but not all games.

Here are the scores of each Nov 30, FCS Round 1 game, the situs for each game, and the game attendance, from largest to smallest.

Montana 41, Tennessee State 27; Attendance at Missoula, MT: 12,329
Abilene Christian 24, Northern Arizona 0; Attendance at Abilene, TX: 5,210
Tarleton State 43, Drake 29; Attendance at Stephenville, TX: 3,583
Rhode Island 22, Central Connecticut 17; Attendance at Kingston, RI: 3,522
Lehigh 20, Richmond 16; Attendance at Richmond, VA: 3,220
Villanova 22, Eastern Ky 17; Attendance at Villanova, PA: 1,722
UT-Martin 41, New Hampshire 10; Attendance at Durham, NH: 1,573
Illinois State 35, Southeast Missouri State 27; Attendance at Cape Girardeau, MO: Not Reported.

I'm guessing the crowd at Saturday's Round 2 game v. Montana, will exceed 13,500 and that will be relatively disappointing in light of the Jacks championship play the past few games. The temp forecast continues to rise and is now predicted to reach 40 degrees with a breeze of 11 mph coming from the WSW—the West grandstands will blunt that breeze so it will be very comfortable conditions in the stadium.

COMPARE: Last week I started a thread which linked HERO SPORTS' Sam Herder’s list of FCS average home attendance figures for the regular season. From that list, I abstracted the attendance figures for the MVFC teams. Here’s the MVFC’s numbers for regular-season home-game average attendance (FCS rank/school/per-game average/percent of stadium capacity}:

6 SDSU 18,504 95.68
10 NDSU 16,789 89.78
21 UND 10,284 83.72
25 UNI 10,135 62.99
28 Miss St. 9,663 55.22 * Missouri State is FBS next year
33 YSU 8,974 43.5
36 IL State 8,564 64.0
37 Murray St.8,332 52.07
40 SIU 8,052 53.68
45 USD 7,364 80.92
98 IN State 3,434 26.9

[mnjackrbt]

We might have more SDSU fans that traveled to Texas in January 2024 to watch a Montana vs. SDSU game than SDSU fans that travel to Brookings in December 2024 for a Montana vs. SDSU game?

[JackrabbitGuy]

I posted part of this in another thread but took a little time to look back at SDSU football playoff attendance. Given this information, although I would love to see more fans in the stands, JackJD's predication of 13,500 this Saturday would be a good turnout and a plyoff record for SDSU. Even with our historic team of a year ago, we didn't have 13,000 for the semifinal game against UAlbany. Last year's playoff attendance was actually a nice step forward, but let's hope it can be raised another notch this year.

Date	Opponent	Result	Score	Attendance
11/24/2012	Eastern Illinois	W	58-10	4367
12/3/2016	Villanova	W	10-7	6154
12/2/2017	Northern Iowa	W	37-22	7518
12/9/2017	New Hampshire	W	56-14	5583
12/1/2018	Duquesne	W	51-6	3042
12/7/2019	Northern Iowa	L	10-13	4102
4/24/2021	Holy Cross	W	31-3	2998
5/2/2021	Southern Illinois	W	31-26	3547
5/8/2021	Delaware	W	33-3	4527
12/3/2022	Delaware	W	42-6	6117
12/10/2022	Holy Cross	W	42-21	6549
12/17/2022	Montana St	W	39-18	7195
12/2/2023	Mercer	W	41-0	10171
12/9/2023	Villanova	W	23-12	10216
12/15/2023	UAlbany	W	59-0	12265

[mnjackrbt]

I posted part of this in another thread but took a little time to look back at SDSU football playoff attendance. Given this information, although I would love to see more fans in the stands, JackJD's predication of 13,500 this Saturday would be a good turnout and a plyoff record for SDSU. Even with our historic team of a year ago, we didn't have 13,000 for the semifinal game against UAlbany. Last year's playoff attendance was actually a nice step forward, but let's hope it can be raised another notch this year.

Date	Opponent	Result	Score	Attendance
11/24/2012	Eastern Illinois	W	58-10	4367
12/3/2016	Villanova	W	10-7	6154
12/2/2017	Northern Iowa	W	37-22	7518
12/9/2017	New Hampshire	W	56-14	5583
12/1/2018	Duquesne	W	51-6	3042
12/7/2019	Northern Iowa	L	10-13	4102
4/24/2021	Holy Cross	W	31-3	2998
5/2/2021	Southern Illinois	W	31-26	3547
5/8/2021	Delaware	W	33-3	4527
12/3/2022	Delaware	W	42-6	6117
12/10/2022	Holy Cross	W	42-21	6549
12/17/2022	Montana St	W	39-18	7195
12/2/2023	Mercer	W	41-0	10171
12/9/2023	Villanova	W	23-12	10216
12/15/2023	UAlbany	W	59-0	12265

We just did the exact same deep dive at the same time. Check out what I posted in the Montana/SDSU thread. Only thing I added was the temp. But yours is organized much nicer.

[jakejc795]

Jacks getting early slot (11am) on 12/14 AND the game being on ESPN increase or decrease attendance compared to the 10,376 we saw yesterday?

Season ticket holders, your tickets are available now via your online ticket account. Looks like prices are the same as Round 2 tickets.

[Bozemaniac]

Jacks getting early slot (11am) on 12/14 AND the game being on ESPN increase or decrease attendance compared to the 10,376 we saw yesterday?

Season ticket holders, your tickets are available now via your online ticket account. Looks like prices are the same as Round 2 tickets.

Looks like the forecast is partly cloudy 35F, no precipitation or strong wind next Saturday. Should be able to get a good crowd.

[Prairiehaas]

Jacks getting early slot (11am) on 12/14 AND the game being on ESPN increase or decrease attendance compared to the 10,376 we saw yesterday?

Season ticket holders, your tickets are available now via your online ticket account. Looks like prices are the same as Round 2 tickets.

I would expect a decrease with the earlier game time and colder temps. I hope I'm wrong. Either way the spectators that do show up will be loud and boisterous. I really liked having the cowbells out yesterday. A good vibe.

I know we fret on attendance. I attended a game 11/1/87 vs UND that was about as much fun as I've had at a regular season Jackrabbits game. It was the year of the Halloween blizzard. The game was postponed to Sunday. We arrived and had to clear inches of snow off the seats at Coughlin Alumni on a sunny but chilly day. The spectators numbered less than the players, no band, some cheerleaders. UND was good, State was not. State romped the UNDies. It was amazing fun. What I'm saying is the number of spectators does not predicate the fun to be had. Go Jacks.

[jakejc795]

I would expect a decrease with the earlier game time and colder temps. I hope I'm wrong. Either way the spectators that do show up will be loud and boisterous. I really liked having the cowbells out yesterday. A good vibe.

I know we fret on attendance. I attended a game 11/1/87 vs UND that was about as much fun as I've had at a regular season Jackrabbits game. It was the year of the Halloween blizzard. The game was postponed to Sunday. We arrived and had to clear inches of snow off the seats at Coughlin Alumni on a sunny but chilly day. The spectators numbered less than the players, no band, some cheerleaders. UND was good, State was not. State romped the UNDies. It was amazing fun. What I'm saying is the number of spectators does not predicate the fun to be had. Go Jacks.

I know I'll have fun cheering. I just hope the players don't perceive it as an indicator of overall fan support

[Prairiehaas]

It's may be because I forgot hearing protection Saturday. But, if the noise levels in the stadium are an indicator, the players will know the level of fan support.