Exposed secrets of Utah State attendance

With the news that New Mexico State is in trouble for poor attendance figures, one might rationally wonder why the same isn't true of football black hole Utah State. As it turns out, some Aggies are more unethical than others.

With the way USU counts every student on campus as someone who has purchased a ticket, the Aggies have found a sneaky way to avoid trouble from the NCAA by living up to ‘attendance standards.’

If only they put as much effort into playing their games...

Thank goodness we root for a team whose waiting list alone exceeds NCAA attendance requirements.

NMSU football in danger [KVNU Full Court Press]

Monday: Links with decisions

Story of the day:

NMSU's days are numbered [Sun-News]

To the dismay of hundreds, New Mexico State may be on the way out of the WAC.

Western Athletic Conference Commissioner Karl Benson said that if New Mexico State University fails to live up to the football attendance standards set by the NCAA, they will be dropped from Division 1A competition and possibly the WAC.

And they're not alone.

Other WAC schools who face similar scenarios as New Mexico State are Utah State and Idaho. All three programs entered the conference three years ago.

NCAA rules stipulate that teams must average 15,000 in attendance, numbers that understandably daunt the WAC's lower-tier teams. If the numbers fall below that benchmark in two consecutive years, the team is placed on probation and has two more years to fix the problem before sanctions are handed down.

No word yet on whether or not NMSU's long-term attendance plan involves the people of Las Cruces suddenly falling in love with subpar football.

Other links:

Scout.com jumps on the Kellen Moore bandwagon [Scout.com]
Good luck finding a seat.

Utah State blog gets wind of their being awful [USUaggies.com]
Upset, but in an understanding way.

Brian Murphy not a fan of early recruiting [Idaho Statesman]
Think of the children!

Boise State girls football [KTVB.com]
Not entirely sure what to think about this.

Get your Vandal calendar! [Scout.com]
$19.95 for 18 months. That's like a dollar a month!

Bronco Stadium too small

Hawaii led the WAC in attendance in 2007, thanks in part to a successful year but mostly because of its giant stadium. Cheaters. Fresno State was second, averaging over 36,000 per game, and Boise State came in third at 30,338 per contest.

Considering that capacity at Bronco Stadium is 30,000 people, BSU fans were doing all they could to pack the house every game. The stadium just isn't big enough.

Cripes reported in the Statesman this week that the new construction project at the stadium is right on schedule, and when it is completed this summer, it will raise the capacity to 32,000. No doubt the new addition will be wonderful. We can't wait to see it. But we also can't wait to see the South end zone closed in.

Let's get it done, BSU administration. We don't like losing to Hawaii and Fresno in anything.

Construction on Bronco Stadium right on schedule [Idaho Statesman]
UH ranks 51st in FBS football attendance [University of Hawaii]