MAC attendance wasn't that great overall last year. (Go to Misc Reports at http://stats.ncaa.org/rankings?sport_code=MFB&division=11)

The MAC had the bottom two (BSU was #128 and Akron #129) and three of the bottom four (NIU was #126). In fact only two MAC schools -- Ohio (#96) and Buffalo (#98) -- were among the top 100. Toledo was #102, then CMU #109, UMass #111, Fiami #113, BG #116, Kent #119, WMU #121 and EMU #123.

Build it, and they will come. Or, maybe not.

Akron did get screwed last year with 3 Tuesday night games, and they get a make-up this year with only one mid-week game, so their numbers will look a lot better in 2015. Even then, at 9,000 a game last year they were not really the worst in the country. EMU actually gets about 4,000 a game, but reported 15k last year because they counted their Pepsi licensing revenue as ticket sales so that they could meet the NCAA requirement of averaging 15k a game every few years. They will mostly likely be back to reporting 4k a game this year.

In the time I've been watching, Akron has been an example of how not to run a football program. There have been some people not thrilled with the expenses of the Ohio IPF, or the new Academic Center at Ohio, but they both enhance multiple sports, not just football, and both have been paid for with contributions before being built. By contrast Akron has to make payments of $4.3 million/year on the stadium, or $720k per game. At 9,000 fans, that figures to $80 per ticket. If they sell tickers for an average of $15, that means they are taking in negative $65 per ticket. They would have been a lot better off to just play the games in their nice IPF, and not have fans at the games... Just kidding, but still, these economics are a mess.

Akron's attendance is indisputably putrid, but it is by no means the worst in the nation. It's not even the worst in the MAC, as others have pointed out. Perhaps it's worst in terms of tickets sold, but we all know how easy it is to fudge numbers, and we also know that some schools count tickets sold and others count actual warm bodies coming through the turnstile. The "worst" moniker would carry more meaning if everyone counted the same way.

All that said, the debt load on that stadium (and other campus improvements) is staggering. Suddenly the fetid urinal troughs of Peden are looking charming and prudent.

I wish it were that "easy", but it's just not. If we made a BCS bowl, we'd still struggle to fill all the seats on a butt-cold Tuesday in November. We had nice weather, a blackout, and a title on the line in 2011 and we still had, what, 13-15k in the stadium? Maybe?

I disagree, I could be wrong but I believe with a BCS bowl on the line in November and a undefeated season going we would have a sell out. Also if that were the case I would be embarrassed we got anything less than a packed house

I would have to think that if there were a ranking for filling the capacity of its stadium on a weekly basis Ohio would rank higher than 96th. Even on the coldest of late season Tuesday games Ohio at least fills 50% of Peden Stadium (one advantage of having a small stadium I suppose). The only games where a very small portion of Peden was ever filled were the Friday games after Thanksgiving when all the students were already home. Those games drew crickets (and understandably so). Overall Ohio does a good job of filling Peden Stadium for its games.

Edit: I'm referencing of the attendance in the first half of games @ Peden, not the 2nd half when students leave en masse after the Marching 110 performs at halftime.

NIU is puzzling. And they want to pump upwards of $100 million into their athletic facilities? Good luck with that!

That NIU game last year was the worst game weather I can remember ever at Peden. The wind chills were in the negative numbers. It's the first game I've missed totally because of the weather in the last 30+ years. Interestingly enough, if that game had been played the next Saturday, the sun would have been shining and it would have been tolerable football weather. The MAC is shooting itself in the foot with these weekday night games in November. Getting rid of these awful November night games is one reason I'd prefer to be in C-USA. Two years ago we had one of these horrible self-induced bad weather games on a weekday night that I went to (and stayed to the end as I always do). I came back with hands that were red as beet, even with a hand warmer. A few days later on the next Saturday, we went down to Huntington to see Marshall play. Again, with the sun shining it was chilly but not bone-cold. If God had intended for us to play night football games in December in Athens, Ohio, He would have brought the Gulf Stream up the Hocking River! ;-)

Yikes! I hate to see that happen. Say what you will, Ohio's measured approach now to spending for athletics seems financially prudent.

I guess you haven't traveled much.

Akron is AOK, it's a nice city. Not only are there worse cities, there are worse cities in Ohio, and by a mile.

Well done!!!!! :)

Akron Faculty Senate president recommends Akron drop down from Division I

http://www.cleveland.com/akron/index.ssf/2015/07/universi...