They over-report every other year to meet the attendance requirement. If they inflated last year then you'll see honest numbers this year. I'm pretty sure that's been their trend but not one hundred percent sure.

Does EMU still require freshmen to attend the week 1 game? I read that they did that a few years ago.

Tickets were also free, and I watched the game... I've seen bigger crowds at our women's BB games.

Here is a question regarding mandatory attendance at d1 games. How serious is the ncaa at enforcing this rule. The schools from the automatic qualifiers such as michigan, ohio state and others like them require teams like the mac schools for scheduling. Ohio State needs 7 home games a year to pay for all their athletic programs.  No matter how much people complain about playing mac schools it provides opponents who don't require a home and home series. Another game against a so called power team would require that and leave ohio state with some years there might only be 6 home games. This would be a financial disaster. Something tells me that is one of those NCAA rules that isn't enforced at all. The whole reason the 12the game was added was too make more money, not for scheduling more games between ranked opponents. This system works for both the big and small schools and since the NCAA  only seems too give a d### about money I doubt they they would rock the boat on making sure emu really meets requirements of this nature. Also isn't there a requirement that a bowl team must win a certain number of games against d1 schools every year with the fcs schools not counting toward bowl  eligibility? Enforcing this rule would seriously reduce the pool of "cupcakes" to fill the schedules with.

thank you very much for the info on the rules. That helps on that question quite a bit. One other question. Since last year was the year for emu to stretch the truth what was the real crowd like at the OU-EMU game as opposed to the announced crowd? The real turnout could not have been good considering we were 1 and 3 and they were hadn't won a game in more then a year. I wasn't there so I have no idea.

thanks for posting the photos from the emu game. Akron had more the last game against Buffalo last year.  Kenyon College who has the worst college football team I have ever seen(I know they are d3 but god they are bad)  brings in more  then that. Of course after seeing the EMU campus for the first time last weekend it is easy too see why nobody would want to play or even go to school there. Oh no more arguing the attendance question from me. It's hard to argue theory with facts.

You could sit anywhere you pleased at that game. I was there. Tickets were general admission seating. It was not a nice day. Chilly and wet, not that nicer weather would have brought out a whole lot of EMU fans. I sort of counted the number of fans and estimated maybe 1,000 or 1,500 there.

I have heard, though, that Eastern Michigan sells large quantities of tickets to various groups when needed to meet attendance requirements, although no one has any intention of using those tickets.