I haven't noticed until now!

[Bison101]

Just to let you know...

Northwestern has about 7,000. That's about 5000 less than us.

[devin45k]

Just to let you know...

Northwestern has about 7,000. That's about 5000 less than us.

They are tiny compared to all the other Big Ten schools!

[Bisonguy]

Just to let you know...

Northwestern has about 7,000. That's about 5000 less than us.

In 2006/2007 Northwestern had about 7,900 undergrad students and NDSU had 10,500, BUT their athletic budget was about $30MM more than NDSU's.


Better get the checkbooks out.....

[IndyBison]

20.9.7.3 Football-Attendance Requirements. [FBS] Once every two years on a rolling basis, the insti-
tution shall average at least 15,000 in actual or paid attendance for all home football games. (Revised: 4/25/02 effective 8/1/04, 4/28/05 effective 8/1/05)

The 2005 revision must have reduced it. There was an article a couple years ago in the local paper about Ball States attendance not reaching the 30K requirement (it seems like it was more recent than 2005 but it could have been that long ago). They may even have problems reaching the 15K level (I found some data from 2005 and they averaged 13K).

The gist of the article is there were a lot of teams not meeting the requirement but the NCAA hadn't taken any action since so many teams would be impacted. From the 2005 data I found, 40 of the 117 D-1A teams were below 30K. There were 14 schools below 15K and 7 of them were in the MAC. It's actually a very good conference but they do have attendance issues.

NDSU should definitely be able to meet the 15K minimum.

[devin45k]

The 2005 revision must have reduced it. There was an article a couple years ago in the local paper about Ball States attendance not reaching the 30K requirement (it seems like it was more recent than 2005 but it could have been that long ago). They may even have problems reaching the 15K level (I found some data from 2005 and they averaged 13K).

The gist of the article is there were a lot of teams not meeting the requirement but the NCAA hadn't taken any action since so many teams would be impacted. From the 2005 data I found, 40 of the 117 D-1A teams were below 30K. There were 14 schools below 15K and 7 of them were in the MAC. It's actually a very good conference but they do have attendance issues.

NDSU should definitely be able to meet the 15K minimum.

I remember seeing a couple clips of Western Michigan playing this year and their stands looked deserted in a couple of their games. The only games that seem to have a lot of fans are their rivalry games.

[devin45k]

In 2006/2007 Northwestern had about 7,900 undergrad students and NDSU had 10,500, BUT their athletic budget was about $30MM more than NDSU's.


Better get the checkbooks out.....

NDSU's website:

"Current enrollment at North Dakota State University is approximately 12,527 students (fall 2007)."

[X-Factor]

NDSU's website:

"Current enrollment at North Dakota State University is approximately 12,527 students (fall 2007)."

yep, that includes grads too.