WSU and Kansas State seem to have a lot in common

[PeteTheChop]

Pretty encouraging that the Wildcats played in the Sugar Bowl in January and will play in the Sweet 16 this week.

Two well-respected land grant universities located well off the beaten path geographically-speaking, but each has seen more than its share of success.

For Flat (and any others here), are WSU and K-State as similar as they seem at first glance? What led to the 'Cats runaway success in football and men's basketball and what's the best way to replicate it in Pullman?

 

[250vertical]

In the late eighties, Sports Illustrated carried an article that described K-state as the worst football program in the nation. The school and regents began to consider the voluntary withdrawal from the Big 8, and a move to a lesser conference. And then they hired a goofy looking dude, who looked more like he belonged in a 19th century London counting house than on the sidelines of college football. Bill Snyder, or as Kansas Jayhawks call him, 'the evil wizard of the plains.' His first priority was to beat KU every year. And it was a priority! At that time you could have four non conference games and he scheduled schools that did not even have the same uniforms for all of their players. And K-state started winning games. Still, no one would go to K-state so he went strong into the JUCO ranks, and he did well in his evaluations. He also would take a two star Kansas kid and develop him into a monster, time after time. About ten years after arriving at K-state he was upset by Texas A&M in the Big 12 championship game, otherwise, he may have played for a national championship. Think of that!! No one evaluated and developed players like Snyder. His offensive schemes were simple, and they practiced the plays over and over again and could execute them perfectly. His two star defensive players were always...always in the correct position to make a play. He saved that school, that had been experiencing a nose diving enrollment - but they are suffering that nose dive again for the past five years, like many. Klieman is solid, but KU football is beginning to come on strong, and KU has continued to grow in enrollment and academic status. And they have Bill Self.

 

[VandallHuskerJulie]

You need to have a power towel.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

KSU and WSU are very, very similar in a lot of ways. Land grant universities with many of the same struggles. Relatively remote geography, relatively small fanbase and TV market, in-state, flagship university rival with a superiority complex located next to the biggest metro area in the state.

There are two things that KSU has over WSU. One is being located in an area of the country where football still "matters" and the second is that despite being relatively remote, they have four lane highway access to Manhattan from two different directions as well as having two highways coming up from the south to keep traffic from being a total nightmare.

Because of that, even though WSU and KSU have similar student enrollment, demographics and population available as fans, they have a 50,000+ seat stadium where they could get away with charging an $18,000/seat fee to have the right to reserve club seats when they first opened their premium seating area. They had $116 million in total athletic department revenue last year. WSU had $71 million. WSU athletics is $65 million in the hole, KSU has a budget surplus every year to build new improvements with and claimed net assets in excess of $300 million. The two big differences in revenue are ticket sales and donations. WSU had $7.5 million in ticket sales in 2022, KSU had $15.2 million. WSU had $9.8 million in contributions in 2022, KSU, including capital campaign contributions.....had $43 million in contributions. We will always be the underdog until our fans commit.

So, even though we have a lot of the same challenges, KSU is in a much, much better financial position to fight those challenges. As mentioned above, Bill Snyder saved the school from disappearing off the map. He was a master at evaluating juco talent, wasn't afraid to schedule patsies and instilled discipline that a drill sergeant would shed a tear for. I'm hoping that Dickert can be the poor man's version of Bill Snyder...but only time will tell.

Even though there are a lot of folks that don't like Chun, he's generally made good hiring decisions that may help close the gap that we are experiencing but again, until our fans spend more money on games and less time winning online polls, we are still fighting an uphill battle.

 

[bostoncoug]

The key difference that Flay points out is ease of travel to K State. Having lived in KS the last 7 years, it is way, way easier to get to Manhattan from KC, Wichita and Topeka than it is to get to Pullman from the West side of WA. Lots of K State alums I know make the day trip 2 hrs from Wichita after kids sports on Saturdays and hit every home game. No hotel needed.

 

[bostoncoug]

Flat (not Flay…..sorry man)

 

[PeteTheChop]

KSU and WSU are very, very similar in a lot of ways ...

The key difference that Flay points out is ease of travel to K State ...

Great stuff, thanks guys.

Wasn't familiar with the travel situation into and out of Manhattan, Ks., but that makes a lot of sense.

I wonder how much (if any) Gonzaga's rise to national prominence has impacted WSU's attendance in basketball and even football?

If Few retired and the Bulldogs/Zags fell off the map and returned to life as a nondescript mid-major program (see UNLV), would that inevitably lead to greater support and investment in WSU's programs from alums/fans in Greater Spokane?

 

[PeteTheChop]

Even though there are a lot of folks that don't like Chun ...

We know Loyal Coug1 isn't a big fan of Mr. Chun, but by and large aren't the vast majority of WSU fans in the current A.D.'s corner?

Chun (with Schultzie's help) did get the money raised for the new IPF, which should be ready to go in 1-2 years.

 

[PeteTheChop]

There are two things that KSU has over WSU. One is being located in an area of the country where football still "matters" ...

Not sure about this statement Flat ...

Boise State draws well for football. Both Montana's and Montana State's attendance are among the very best in FCS and would compare with the lower tier of FBS.

When WSU does well — which was often under CML — the stadium was frequently packed when UW, UO and others came to town.

There's a reason Biggs, Tron and the like have promoted stadium expansion over the years

 

[Observer11]

Great stuff, thanks guys.

Wasn't familiar with the travel situation into and out of Manhattan, Ks., but that makes a lot of sense.

I wonder how much (if any) Gonzaga's rise to national prominence has impacted WSU's attendance in basketball and even football?

If Few retired and the Bulldogs/Zags fell off the map and returned to life as a nondescript mid-major program (see UNLV), would that inevitably lead to greater support and investment in WSU's programs from alums/fans in Greater Spokane?

Nope.

People seem very confused that massive amounts of dollars are being siphoned away by WSU boosters choosing instead to contribute to Gonzaga. Most everyone I know in the business community who may have Gonzaga basketball tickets also hold WSU football tickets.

There's probably some who also have WSU basketball season tickets but Coug bball isn't a client-centric event slogging through the dark on a Thursday night. And my guess is the same holders now had tickets during the Bennett years and going back long before that.

WSU should quit using Gonzaga's success as an excuse. WSU ADs have done more than an adequate job of alienating people over the last four decades on their own, whether that is destroying programs by buddy hiring Ernie Kent, telling people they aren't Cougs without 'skin in the game, maintaining a hit list of no-bowl tickets or completely bungling Rose Bowl ticket distribution.

Do better.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

Not sure about this statement Flat ...

Boise State draws well for football. Both Montana's and Montana State's attendance are among the very best in FCS and would compare with the lower tier of FBS.

When WSU does well — which was often under CML — the stadium was frequently packed when UW, UO and others came to town.

There's a reason Biggs, Tron and the like have promoted stadium expansion over the years

Boise State is doing well compared to many teams in the West but they still averaged only 32,070 fans per game last year according to an article I found. That's 89% of capacity. That's good but they are rarely selling out their stadium. Football does matter in Montana and they are doing great. Of course, attendance figures in the mid-20's isn't going to make too many outsiders excited.

Attendance at football games in the Pac-12 in 2022 were well below their five year averages for the majority of the conference, which were already not great.

Arizona: +5%
ASU: -12%
Cal: -6%
CU: -9%
Oregon: +3%
OSU: -8% (stadium work muddies the picture here)
Stanford: -26%
UCLA: -21%
USC: +3%
Utah: +10%
UW: -5%
WSU: -10%

In the Big 12, Baylor, KU, KSU, TCU, Texas and Texas Tech had higher attendance in 2022 than their five year averages, while Iowa State, OU, and OSU were essentially flat with small increases or decreases. West Virginia was the only school that dropped significantly.

Baylor: +3%
Iowa State: -0.1%
KU: +69%
KSU: +3%
OU: -0.5%
OSU: +0.6%
Texas: +5%
TCU: +9%
TT: +3%
WVU: -15%

The Mountain West as a whole did better than the Pac-12, but it was a mix of some teams doing well while others struggled to bring in fans. There's a nationwide trend of struggling attendance as our nation gets past the COVID era, but the Pac-12 in particular seems to be really struggling with its relevance to fans.

 

[Loyal Coug1]

Boise State is doing well compared to many teams in the West but they still averaged only 32,070 fans per game last year according to an article I found. That's 89% of capacity. That's good but they are rarely selling out their stadium. Football does matter in Montana and they are doing great. Of course, attendance figures in the mid-20's isn't going to make too many outsiders excited.

Attendance at football games in the Pac-12 in 2022 were well below their five year averages for the majority of the conference, which were already not great.

Arizona: +5%
ASU: -12%
Cal: -6%
CU: -9%
Oregon: +3%
OSU: -8% (stadium work muddies the picture here)
Stanford: -26%
UCLA: -21%
USC: +3%
Utah: +10%
UW: -5%
WSU: -10%

In the Big 12, Baylor, KU, KSU, TCU, Texas and Texas Tech had higher attendance in 2022 than their five year averages, while Iowa State, OU, and OSU were essentially flat with small increases or decreases. West Virginia was the only school that dropped significantly.

Baylor: +3%
Iowa State: -0.1%
KU: +69%
KSU: +3%
OU: -0.5%
OSU: +0.6%
Texas: +5%
TCU: +9%
TT: +3%
WVU: -15%

The Mountain West as a whole did better than the Pac-12, but it was a mix of some teams doing well while others struggled to bring in fans. There's a nationwide trend of struggling attendance as our nation gets past the COVID era, but the Pac-12 in particular seems to be really struggling with its relevance to fans.

Nice stats, Flat. Boise State has a metropolitan area of 750,000 and BSU has 24,000+ students, according to the bible - aka Wikipedia. So 32,000 doesn't seem that impressive for the Nebraska of the West.

 

[COUGinNCW]

KSU and WSU are very, very similar in a lot of ways. Land grant universities with many of the same struggles. Relatively remote geography, relatively small fanbase and TV market, in-state, flagship university rival with a superiority complex located next to the biggest metro area in the state.

There are two things that KSU has over WSU. One is being located in an area of the country where football still "matters" and the second is that despite being relatively remote, they have four lane highway access to Manhattan from two different directions as well as having two highways coming up from the south to keep traffic from being a total nightmare.

Because of that, even though WSU and KSU have similar student enrollment, demographics and population available as fans, they have a 50,000+ seat stadium where they could get away with charging an $18,000/seat fee to have the right to reserve club seats when they first opened their premium seating area. They had $116 million in total athletic department revenue last year. WSU had $71 million. WSU athletics is $65 million in the hole, KSU has a budget surplus every year to build new improvements with and claimed net assets in excess of $300 million. The two big differences in revenue are ticket sales and donations. WSU had $7.5 million in ticket sales in 2022, KSU had $15.2 million. WSU had $9.8 million in contributions in 2022, KSU, including capital campaign contributions.....had $43 million in contributions. We will always be the underdog until our fans commit.

So, even though we have a lot of the same challenges, KSU is in a much, much better financial position to fight those challenges. As mentioned above, Bill Snyder saved the school from disappearing off the map. He was a master at evaluating juco talent, wasn't afraid to schedule patsies and instilled discipline that a drill sergeant would shed a tear for. I'm hoping that Dickert can be the poor man's version of Bill Snyder...but only time will tell.

Even though there are a lot of folks that don't like Chun, he's generally made good hiring decisions that may help close the gap that we are experiencing but again, until our fans spend more money on games and less time winning online polls, we are still fighting an uphill battle

KSU and WSU are very, very similar in a lot of ways. Land grant universities with many of the same struggles. Relatively remote geography, relatively small fanbase and TV market, in-state, flagship university rival with a superiority complex located next to the biggest metro area in the state.

There are two things that KSU has over WSU. One is being located in an area of the country where football still "matters" and the second is that despite being relatively remote, they have four lane highway access to Manhattan from two different directions as well as having two highways coming up from the south to keep traffic from being a total nightmare.

Because of that, even though WSU and KSU have similar student enrollment, demographics and population available as fans, they have a 50,000+ seat stadium where they could get away with charging an $18,000/seat fee to have the right to reserve club seats when they first opened their premium seating area. They had $116 million in total athletic department revenue last year. WSU had $71 million. WSU athletics is $65 million in the hole, KSU has a budget surplus every year to build new improvements with and claimed net assets in excess of $300 million. The two big differences in revenue are ticket sales and donations. WSU had $7.5 million in ticket sales in 2022, KSU had $15.2 million. WSU had $9.8 million in contributions in 2022, KSU, including capital campaign contributions.....had $43 million in contributions. We will always be the underdog until our fans commit.

So, even though we have a lot of the same challenges, KSU is in a much, much better financial position to fight those challenges. As mentioned above, Bill Snyder saved the school from disappearing off the map. He was a master at evaluating juco talent, wasn't afraid to schedule patsies and instilled discipline that a drill sergeant would shed a tear for. I'm hoping that Dickert can be the poor man's version of Bill Snyder...but only time will tell.

Even though there are a lot of folks that don't like Chun, he's generally made good hiring decisions that may help close the gap that we are experiencing but again, until our fans spend more money on games and less time winning online polls, we are still fighting an uphill battle.

A lot of the angst re the PAC holding up is based on uw and Oregon bolting for the BIG down the road whereas the Big12 has no one else anyone would want so they are more stable. If Kansas can establish at least an adequate football program, they seem like the most attractive Big12 school for the BIG or SEC and may end up bolting next round of realignment.

 

[Coug90]

Boise State is doing well compared to many teams in the West but they still averaged only 32,070 fans per game last year according to an article I found. That's 89% of capacity. That's good but they are rarely selling out their stadium. Football does matter in Montana and they are doing great. Of course, attendance figures in the mid-20's isn't going to make too many outsiders excited.

Attendance at football games in the Pac-12 in 2022 were well below their five year averages for the majority of the conference, which were already not great.

Arizona: +5%
ASU: -12%
Cal: -6%
CU: -9%
Oregon: +3%
OSU: -8% (stadium work muddies the picture here)
Stanford: -26%
UCLA: -21%
USC: +3%
Utah: +10%
UW: -5%
WSU: -10%

In the Big 12, Baylor, KU, KSU, TCU, Texas and Texas Tech had higher attendance in 2022 than their five year averages, while Iowa State, OU, and OSU were essentially flat with small increases or decreases. West Virginia was the only school that dropped significantly.

Baylor: +3%
Iowa State: -0.1%
KU: +69%
KSU: +3%
OU: -0.5%
OSU: +0.6%
Texas: +5%
TCU: +9%
TT: +3%
WVU: -15%

The Mountain West as a whole did better than the Pac-12, but it was a mix of some teams doing well while others struggled to bring in fans. There's a nationwide trend of struggling attendance as our nation gets past the COVID era, but the Pac-12 in particular seems to be really struggling with its relevance to fans.

This is the correct answer. Yeah we had a decent number of sellouts during the peak of the Leach years. But in general CFB attendance particularly in the west is in decline. If there are a handful of games that you could sell 5K more tix to “maybe” it makes zero sense to put in 10-15K extra seats. The Gameday Oregon game woulda got there. Probably a good apple cup matchup. But every game in between is empty metal everywhere and a bad look with no ROI.

I love a big packed stadium as much as the next guy but you have to put limited resources where there will be a payoff.

 

[79COUG]

Hey Flat...I know Manhattan isn't exactly a year round destination so I'm curious as to what drove the need for 4 lane highways to the town? That's always been the rub in Washington when the discussion of putting in 4 lanes between Spokane and Pullman. And how long have the 4 lanes been there, if you know?

 

[BSpike76]

Hey Flat...I know Manhattan isn't exactly a year round destination so I'm curious as to what drove the need for 4 lane highways to the town? That's always been the rub in Washington when the discussion of putting in 4 lanes between Spokane and Pullman. And how long have the 4 lanes been there, if you know?

I’ll take a shot. They’re on an interstate between Denver and KC. They’re close to a junction with the interstate between OKC and KC.

Maybe we should build that stadium in E’berg🤔.

 

[PeteTheChop]

I’ll take a shot. They’re on an interstate between Denver and KC. They’re close to a junction with the interstate between OKC and KC.

Maybe we should build that stadium in E’berg🤔.

To quote the great long-lost Coug-A-Tron, "If you build it, they will come."

 

[CougPatrol]

Collegiate fan attendance is slowly dying on the West coast. For a chuckle related to this post, go check out the rant that Oregon basketball coach Dana Altman went on last night following their home NIT loss to Wisconsin where only 3,300 fans showed up. Yea, it was "just" an NIT game, but you wouldn't see that in the B10, B12, SEC, or ACC.

When West coast schools are performing well, fans will generally turn out, but there isn't the thick or thin, diehard passion that you see East of the Rockies. There's a different mindset out West. There isn't the multi-generational history of support that you see in the other P5 conferences where football and men's basketball are concerned.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

Hey Flat...I know Manhattan isn't exactly a year round destination so I'm curious as to what drove the need for 4 lane highways to the town? That's always been the rub in Washington when the discussion of putting in 4 lanes between Spokane and Pullman. And how long have the 4 lanes been there, if you know?

I-70 has been a four lane for a long time. I-70 west of Topeka was actually the very first interstate highway in the United States. However, the roads into town from I-70 were both two lane roads not all that long ago. Traffic used to back up well onto the interstate on game days and it could take over an hour to drive the last 15 miles into town.

I believe that K-177 was upgraded to a four lane in the late 90's. It's called the Coach Bill Snyder highway for a reason. K-18 from the west was upgraded to a four lane about 10 years ago. From the south, they are still two lane highways, but they've added numerous passing lanes and roundabouts in areas that were dangerous before. And I was wrong, there's actually three highways that come in from the south that feed into the interstate highway.

 

[PeteTheChop]

Nope.

People seem very confused that massive amounts of dollars are being siphoned away by WSU boosters choosing instead to contribute to Gonzaga. Most everyone I know in the business community who may have Gonzaga basketball tickets also hold WSU football tickets.

There's probably some who also have WSU basketball season tickets but Coug bball isn't a client-centric event slogging through the dark on a Thursday night. And my guess is the same holders now had tickets during the Bennett years and going back long before that.

WSU should quit using Gonzaga's success as an excuse. WSU ADs have done more than an adequate job of alienating people over the last four decades on their own, whether that is destroying programs by buddy hiring Ernie Kent, telling people they aren't Cougs without 'skin in the game, maintaining a hit list of no-bowl tickets or completely bungling Rose Bowl ticket distribution.

Do better.

Good info, thanks.

What's your take on AD Pat Chun after 5 years on the job?

Is he the right person for the position?

 

[79COUG]

I-70 has been a four lane for a long time. I-70 west of Topeka was actually the very first interstate highway in the United States. However, the roads into town from I-70 were both two lane roads not all that long ago. Traffic used to back up well onto the interstate on game days and it could take over an hour to drive the last 15 miles into town.

I believe that K-177 was upgraded to a four lane in the late 90's. It's called the Coach Bill Snyder highway for a reason. K-18 from the west was upgraded to a four lane about 10 years ago. From the south, they are still two lane highways, but they've added numerous passing lanes and roundabouts in areas that were dangerous before. And I was wrong, there's actually three highways that come in from the south that feed into the interstate highway.

Thanks Flat. Pretty short (15 miles) to turn into a 4 lane compared to Pullman to Spokane.

 

[Observer11]

Good info, thanks.

What's your take on AD Pat Chun after 5 years on the job?

Is he the right person for the position?

Until Kirk Schultz says he isn't or he carpet bags somewhere else, I guess he is.

 

[250vertical]

Collegiate fan attendance is slowly dying on the West coast. For a chuckle related to this post, go check out the rant that Oregon basketball coach Dana Altman went on last night following their home NIT loss to Wisconsin where only 3,300 fans showed up. Yea, it was "just" an NIT game, but you wouldn't see that in the B10, B12, SEC, or ACC.

When West coast schools are performing well, fans will generally turn out, but there isn't the thick or thin, diehard passion that you see East of the Rockies. There's a different mindset out West. There isn't the multi-generational history of support that you see in the other P5 conferences where football and men's basketball are concerned.

There is an article on Heartland Sports that lists the conferences by average percentage of BB venues attendance. The Big 12 is by far ahead with their venues at 75% full. Next is the BIG 10 at 65%. ACC 63%. PAC at 33%. Total attendance is led by the BIG 10. Of course BB accounts for only 20 to 25 percent of a conference media package - ACC is 30 to 35 percent.
The geographic diversity of the West is unmatched in the country...biggest playground in the world with a massive population. Does that figure into the low intensity of interest in college FB and BB? Is it more of a cultural matter?
Nebraska's Memorial Stadium is the third largest 'city' in the state on game days. Their eyeballs on the screen are the fourth largest in the BIG 10. No mountains, no shore, no desert, tiny population. Booze, food, and Red.

 

[95coug]

Not sure about this statement Flat ...

Boise State draws well for football. Both Montana's and Montana State's attendance are among the very best in FCS and would compare with the lower tier of FBS.

When WSU does well — which was often under CML — the stadium was frequently packed when UW, UO and others came to town.

There's a reason Biggs, Tron and the like have promoted stadium expansion over the years

A couple of counterpoints:

Boise, Missoula, and Bozeman all have immediate freeway access, so it's much easier for attendees to get to town for games. That's a contributor to their attendance that can't be discounted.

I think people overestimate how good attendance was during the Leach era, mostly (I think) because it was so bad in the years before then. And, while that was certainly the most successful extended run in WSU football...it didn't necessarily bump attendance as much as perception. Attendance during Leach's tenure averaged 30,207 (excluding Seattle games), with 17 sellouts. Note that these are based on official attendance, so it's tickets sold, not necessarily butts in the seats. Countering those 17 sellouts, there were also 15 games with less than 30K official attendance. 6 of those were less than 25K (and a couple more only slightly above 25K).

So, we sold out just over 1/3 of our home games, which I'm positive is a higher rate than previous. But...the 17 sellouts were against 9 teams. 3 each against EWU, UW, and UO. 2 each against Stanford and Arizona, and 1 against ASU, OSU, Cal, and the disaster game against UCLA. The EWU/UW/UO sellouts were about the opponent, I think the rest align with homecoming or dad's weekend for the most part. Fans still did not turn out just for WSU, they showed up for either an event or based on the opponent. More evidence of that is the fact that the 2018 team - who climbed the polls from midseason on, and ended with the best record in WSU history, and were arguably the most exiting team to watch in the last generation - averaged almost 1,900 less than the 2017 team. The Gameday game was the first sellout of the season, and a month later - after 4 more wins, at 9-1 and ranked #8, they drew 22,400 for senior day. And, as one of those 22,400...I can tell you that number was significantly overestimated. I still have the pictures of the empty stands.

Simple truth is that there's no reliable formula to make WSU fans turn out. Winning is not enough.

 

[spongeandshoot]

To quote the great long-lost Coug-A-Tron, "If you build it, they will come."

Are you seriously quoting a guy who wants to build a stadium in Ellensburg?

And the dude was almost as bad as Yaki...wishing death upon people who thought Walden was good for WSU etc.

 

[CougPatrol]

A couple of counterpoints:

Boise, Missoula, and Bozeman all have immediate freeway access, so it's much easier for attendees to get to town for games. That's a contributor to their attendance that can't be discounted.

I think people overestimate how good attendance was during the Leach era, mostly (I think) because it was so bad in the years before then. And, while that was certainly the most successful extended run in WSU football...it didn't necessarily bump attendance as much as perception. Attendance during Leach's tenure averaged 30,207 (excluding Seattle games), with 17 sellouts. Note that these are based on official attendance, so it's tickets sold, not necessarily butts in the seats. Countering those 17 sellouts, there were also 15 games with less than 30K official attendance. 6 of those were less than 25K (and a couple more only slightly above 25K).

So, we sold out just over 1/3 of our home games, which I'm positive is a higher rate than previous. But...the 17 sellouts were against 9 teams. 3 each against EWU, UW, and UO. 2 each against Stanford and Arizona, and 1 against ASU, OSU, Cal, and the disaster game against UCLA. The EWU/UW/UO sellouts were about the opponent, I think the rest align with homecoming or dad's weekend for the most part. Fans still did not turn out just for WSU, they showed up for either an event or based on the opponent. More evidence of that is the fact that the 2018 team - who climbed the polls from midseason on, and ended with the best record in WSU history, and were arguably the most exiting team to watch in the last generation - averaged almost 1,900 less than the 2017 team. The Gameday game was the first sellout of the season, and a month later - after 4 more wins, at 9-1 and ranked #8, they drew 22,400 for senior day. And, as one of those 22,400...I can tell you that number was significantly overestimated. I still have the pictures of the empty stands.

Simple truth is that there's no reliable formula to make WSU fans turn out. Winning is not enough.

It's a West coast problem, not a WSU problem. USC, the P12's most historically significant program located in the heart of Los Angeles, ranked 22nd Nationally in attendance.

Michigan, Penn State, and Ohio State averaged over 100K/game. Nebraska averaged over 86K/game. Wisconsin 74K. Iowa & Michigan State 69K.

In the SEC, LSU, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Auburn, Clemson, and South Carolina averaged between 75K - 105K. That's TEN PROGRAMS.

In the P12:

• 3 programs (WSU, OSU, Stanford) averages less than 30K fans/game

• 5 programs (Cal, UCLA Colorado, ASU, and Arizona) averaged less than 45K fans/game

• Utah and Oregon averaged 52K & 54K fans/game respectively

• UW and USC averaged 62K & 64K fans/game

I don't blame P12 programs for pursuing other conference affiliations, but the writing is on the wall. West coast college athletics will never hold a candle to the B10 and SEC. It's not even close.