FOOTBALL Opening Weekend for C-USA

[dukewayne]

While opening weekend hasn't been all that good for C-USA in the W-L column, there seems to be a few positives to go along with the bad for the conference.

First the bad, of the 6 C-USA wins only 1 came vs a FBS opponent, Marshall over Miami of the MAC. Only one FBS win for the conference on opening weekend really is pretty pathetic.

The good news about that, C-USA won all of it's games vs FCS competition. It's sort of sad to even have to mention that as a positive as one would hope that it would be an expected norm.

Another interesting and positive development is that it appears that C-USA teams playing at home were able to generate some reasonably decent crowds if not downright impressive in a few cases.

Most of you are aware of MTSU attendance:
MTSU: 26,717 Good for MT in recent years, still poor vs local SEC team at home.
UAB: 45,212 a new high for UAB, the reboot of football for them seems to be off to a good start.
Marshall: 22,463 after last season, not too bad for them or C-USA
La Tech: 24,002 a not too shabby crowd vs a FCS team
WKU: 18,614 Not that great all things considered, but still close to filling their small stadium.
UNT: 19,592 Probably holding serve for them & C-USA; not too bad for vs a FCS team
FAU: 28,481 Impressive! Huge for FAU. Lane Kiffin generating interest. Looked like big crowd on TV
USM: 22,761 Seems disappointing for USM vs SEC Kentucky for home opener.
ODU: 20,118 Usual sellout for ODU I imagine.

 

[dukewayne]

Looking for some further observations and/or opinions on MTSU's attendance.

It looked like Floyd Stadium available seating was mostly full which is great for MT. Of course this was with the help of the tarps covering seats in endzone upper deck.

Did anyone get around when the crowd was still in the stadium to see if there were many or any without seats due to the tarps? This would reference areas of standing room only or especially a full concourse in the student section area during gameplay.

Just curious if the tarps kept any fans from getting seats or if it worked out just about right for the crowd in attendance.

 

[dukewayne]

Speaking of attendance and Stadium for gameday, a few things could've been managed a little better at least in my opinion. One is likely just me complaining because I'm getting old; therefore, I wouldn't consider it an "official" complaint. It seemed to me that the music selection type and when it was blasted was slightly annoying. I imagined the young folks probably enjoyed it.

What's with the fair or carnival looking tents down in the south endzone? Maybe they're from the beach at Atlantic City or near Coney Island, you know generally big, ugly, and tacky? Additionally, it appears that maybe a half dozen people use them. The more realistic problem is that they are big enough to block the view for people trying to sit in the bottom half of those endzone seats that are behind those big canopy tops.

Generally for most of MT's poorly attended games it hasn't been a problem. Other than being a useless eyesore that is. Most games like last season with poor attendance it's not a big problem. It did appear to be a problem for the Vandy game when the stadium actually begins to fill up. People looked to be trying to sit in the endzone while leaning and twisting to try to be able to see the field. It's just some of these gameday management type issues that appear could use a little improvement.

The last and embarrassing one to mention is all of the racket i.e. sound effects pumped throughout the stadium for a TD. This includes the fairly common firework display which is seemingly normal for a lot of stadiums, the fireworks, not all that other racket. Whatever the case, what's with all that racket for an incomplete pass outside the endzone? For the trigger person who thought that was a TD, it was likely an unfortunate mistake which on most ordinary nights wouldn't have been all that big a deal. As it were though, the continuance of all that racket on National TV became quite the laughingstock. Hey, stuff happens, people laugh. At some point though it gets to be unprofessional or amateurish appearing which isn't exactly helping with promoting that MT brand and perception.

 

[Blueraider_Mike]

I thought our attendance was great. The atmosphere was fine. Move on.

 

[MT Glenn]

"MTSU: 26,717 Good for MT in recent years, still poor vs local SEC team at home."


What is capacity, now that we have tarps up?

 

[dukewayne]

"MTSU: 26,717 Good for MT in recent years, still poor vs local SEC team at home."


What is capacity, now that we have tarps up?

Good question, it appeared that it was pretty darn close. Just speculating, I would think not much more than a couple/few thousand could fit in the seats where the tarps are located. Just guessing though.