B1G & RU attendance….and viewership – who watched, who went

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At OTB Headquarters, we had a brief conversation about whether we should report on attendance in the Big Ten every week. This may not continue this way throughout the season, but for now, here it is. What was it like across the Big Ten for attendance in Week 2?

Six B1G schools were either on the road or didn’t play. Among the others, the average home attendance was 64,114. But that was only 65% of total capacity; we’re still in non-conference play for the most part so enthusiasm is….meh. Only Indiana, Iowa (vs Iowa State), and Michigan had a full house. UCLA continues to draw questions about whether playing at the Rose Bowl is a good idea; jst over 31,000 is a poor look in a building that houses over 80,000.

TV Viewership

There was an On3 story on top viewed games of week 1; TV ratings are usually about a week behind. Among the top 10 viewed games from the first full week of college football, four involved the Big Ten; Rutgers was not among them.

And among all Big Ten teams on TV, the top viewed game in Week 1 was Wisconsin vs. Notre Dame, drawing somewhere close to 7.5 million viewers. That was followed by the Apple Cup with a bit over five million viewrs. The viewership worked its way down to Rutgers, the 14th most viewed B1G team, with about 370,000 eyes on the tube in the game versus UMass.

Moving forward….who will show up?

The current state of affairs with Rutgers football is not great. Moving forward, there will, I believe, be a close eye on attendance at SHI Stadium. If Rutgers doesn’t pull out of its current downward trend, it would seem that attendance would drop in Piscataway. Fewer fans, less concessions, less revenue. That is not good. There are about 7,000 USC alumni in the NY-NJ area; how many will attend Saturday’s game is anyone’s guess.

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