The students did a better job showing up than the alums.
For the first half. 95 percent or better of the old-farts who showed up stayed until the clock reached 00:00. And, the empty seats on the press box side near us were almost all people who normally travel relatively long distances to get to Athens for a game, and probably just couldn't make the trip on a weekday. That being said, there was a couple behind us from Dayton and my cousin and two of his friends made it down from Zanesville. Only about half the students who showed up really seemed to care a flying fig who won the game. Perhaps we could get our bio-tech folks over at the Edison Research Center to clone the half of the students who stayed in the second half last night and then we could kick the other half out of school and never know the difference.
Watching the game from 7 hours away (I'm a poor grad student, couldn't make a wednesday night game...plus we've had an annoying tendency to lose when I'm watching games in person this year), the student section looked awesome on TV. I don't know if it was a function of the blackout or what, but even with half the student section leaving, it
WAS NOT apparent on TV, in terms of bodies, holes, or noise. I think it was said elsewhere that even though 40% of the side left, the noise didn't change a bit.
I hate to be a stirer of strife, but I've got to disagree with you OCF: student turn out looked phenomenal to me, ESPECIALLY compared to what it was like when I was a student (Knorr years). It'd be nice if 100% of the students stayed till the end of the game, but it looked awesome on TV, looked like a passionate fan base, especially compared to the crowd shots at Toledo on tuesday, or most any other non-BCS week night game they've shown in the last couple weeks.
I'm off my soapbox now. Feel free to fireback (work has been slow today)