While you folks try to figure out if there is anywhere that you can buy a white out shirt for $4, I figured I'd give the rest of us something to discuss.

Using the advanced metric known as "the eye-test" it appears as though our student attendance through two games is very strong. We sold out student tickets (and then gave additional seats to the students) for the Southern Utah game, and now we are seeing much of the same for the Colorado State game.

While I do think that the majority of fans on this board consider Colorado State to be important, I don't think the majority of students view it that way. We have seen over the last two years that the students were rather indifferent towards any game that wasn't BYU, Boise, or a home opener.

The difference this year? A lot of 20 year old LDS dudes are coming to college for the first time and getting involved with the sports scene. I believe these last two years of student indifference have been partially caused by the fact that there have been much more women on campus than men. Although I don't have exact numbers, I have spoken to a couple of friends that were on the USU Executive Council the past few years and they did say that the number of freshman males was down. This year it looks like USU's total student body is higher by thousands of kids!

I think we will see great attendance for the remainder of the football season and perhaps a return to glory days for the Spectrum.

Do you think the change in the missionary age requirement was a big contributor? Now two-three years later it's finally balancing itself out?

3 years ago. We packed Romney for the first 3 games easy. One was Weber. The next was Utah. The third was unlv. I don't think missionary age has anything to do with it.

Now if they start showing up to the games coming up in October, we can start asking questions. Those are the games we have issues with still

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

This year we have had 2000 more incoming students than we have ever had before. I'm pretty sure that has helped getting more tickets sold. Either way, the students have stepped it up this year!

Students starting college this year are used to us being good at football. They probably don't remember, or are only vaguely aware of, a time when we were among the worst teams in college football.

I think that has to help a little with student enthusiasm, along with the factors already mentioned.

I've never seen a more excited freshman class. Not only are there a ton of them, they all can't wait to get involved and are pumped about the games. It's so fun to see around campus.

YoungBloodAggie wrote:While you folks try to figure out if there is anywhere that you can buy a white out shirt for $4, I figured I'd give the rest of us something to discuss.

Using the advanced metric known as "the eye-test" it appears as though our student attendance through two games is very strong. We sold out student tickets (and then gave additional seats to the students) for the Southern Utah game, and now we are seeing much of the same for the Colorado State game.

While I do think that the majority of fans on this board consider Colorado State to be important, I don't think the majority of students view it that way. We have seen over the last two years that the students were rather indifferent towards any game that wasn't BYU, Boise, or a home opener.

The difference this year? A lot of 20 year old LDS dudes are coming to college for the first time and getting involved with the sports scene. I believe these last two years of student indifference have been partially caused by the fact that there have been much more women on campus than men. Although I don't have exact numbers, I have spoken to a couple of friends that were on the USU Executive Council the past few years and they did say that the number of freshman males was down. This year it looks like USU's total student body is higher by thousands of kids!

I think we will see great attendance for the remainder of the football season and perhaps a return to glory days for the Spectrum.

Just so you're aware, I heard from a little bird that Macey's sells them for 4 dollars. You're welcome.

kkalian311 wrote:3 years ago. We packed Romney for the first 3 games easy. One was Weber. The next was Utah. The third was unlv. I don't think missionary age has anything to do with it.

Now if they start showing up to the games coming up in October, we can start asking questions. Those are the games we have issues with still

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

I would attribute that to the following:

1. Weber was a home opener. Also you're misinformed because it was SUU.

2. Utah is on the same level as BYU and Boise for our fanbase, so it's a no-brainer sell out.

3. UNLV was sold out because of the initial excitement of a white-out game (we've since wasted this marketing ploy) and momentum from the Utah win, Wisconsin close loss, and CSU win.

I would say that the main difference for this year is that we are coming off of one ugly win and two losses, yet we are going to pack MOFAMS against CSU.

kkalian311 wrote:3 years ago. We packed Romney for the first 3 games easy. One was Weber. The next was Utah. The third was unlv. I don't think missionary age has anything to do with it.

Now if they start showing up to the games coming up in October, we can start asking questions. Those are the games we have issues with still

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

The age was lowered three years ago, in October. Would not have impacted the attendance for those games.

I had not considered the age change having had an impact, but the more I think about it the more logical it seems...I suppose we could look up incoming freshman class statistics for 2013-15 and find out for certain?

Socrates2121 wrote:I've never seen a more excited freshman class. Not only are there a ton of them, they all can't wait to get involved and are pumped about the games. It's so fun to see around campus.

AggieUprising50 wrote:This year we have had 2000 more incoming students than we have ever had before. I'm pretty sure that has helped getting more tickets sold. Either way, the students have stepped it up this year!

These two comments, to me, are completely unrelated.

Yes, we absolutely have a great freshman class coming in. I have also seen their excitement for Aggie sports. Soccer games and volleyball games are also well attended thus far. However, just because there are 2000 more students, it doesn't mean that our attendance is automatically going to increase at sporting events. We saw huge enrollment growth from 2010-2012 (pre-mission change years), however attendance and atmosphere at the Spectrum was actually worse over those years.

Socrates2121 wrote:I've never seen a more excited freshman class. Not only are there a ton of them, they all can't wait to get involved and are pumped about the games. It's so fun to see around campus.

AggieUprising50 wrote:This year we have had 2000 more incoming students than we have ever had before. I'm pretty sure that has helped getting more tickets sold. Either way, the students have stepped it up this year!

I'd like to think that I made a "small" contribution to both of these in Dec 1995. My son (just turned 19) is part of this year's freshman class - was on row 19 for SUU, and has tickets on row 5 for Saturday.

There are still 1400 student tickets left for the CSU game right now.

YoungBloodAggie wrote:

Socrates2121 wrote:I've never seen a more excited freshman class. Not only are there a ton of them, they all can't wait to get involved and are pumped about the games. It's so fun to see around campus.

AggieUprising50 wrote:This year we have had 2000 more incoming students than we have ever had before. I'm pretty sure that has helped getting more tickets sold. Either way, the students have stepped it up this year!

These two comments, to me, are completely unrelated.

Yes, we absolutely have a great freshman class coming in. I have also seen their excitement for Aggie sports. Soccer games and volleyball games are also well attended thus far. However, just because there are 2000 more students, it doesn't mean that our attendance is automatically going to increase at sporting events. We saw huge enrollment growth from 2010-2012 (pre-mission change years), however attendance and atmosphere at the Spectrum was actually worse over those years.

The product has a lot to do with the atmosphere, too. I fear that our football style is going to be a drag on attendance unless we can find a way to put more points on the board.

kkalian311 wrote:3 years ago. We packed Romney for the first 3 games easy. One was Weber. The next was Utah. The third was unlv. I don't think missionary age has anything to do with it.

Now if they start showing up to the games coming up in October, we can start asking questions. Those are the games we have issues with still

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

Your first paragraph is great correlation for the OP. There was a couple year transition period for number of guys on missions. Makes sense to me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm glad it's coming around! I was starting to worry that the next generation was losing interest. Too busy playing video games, taking selfies, and watching porn.

Intermeddler wrote:Students starting college this year are used to us being good at football. They probably don't remember, or are only vaguely aware of, a time when we were among the worst teams in college football.

I think that has to help a little with student enthusiasm, along with the factors already mentioned.

Insightful comment Intermeddler!!!!!.... Over a generation of student and then alumni support was generally extinguished by USU Administrations not seeing the value of winning on the gridiron and neglecting AGGIE FOOTBALL.

When they have to get an assigned seat ticket the mentality forces them to decide earlier in the week
So instead of deciding afternoon of game day, saunter over last minute. Now they don't want to be left out,they hurry and get their tickets
Then at the game there is no rush for seats.
Yes. Now they can go to tailgates and other activities and still have their seat
This is a proven ploy by many schools and is very successful.
Plaudits to usu for doing this. It is a great thing. Now. For it to continue our offense needs to make it exciting. I'm convinced they will do just that.
At The suu game our students support fired up our team near games end. Exciting play will retain them

It seems like an ongoing cycle. Get good turnouts for the first few games, and think that "there is more excitement from the students." with the low turnouts from October and November the year before being fresh on our minds. Then with the hopes up AGAIN of doing better in the later games, get more disappointed when we again have a poor turnout for those games. But then remember those, see us AGAIN do well in the early games the next year, and the cycle continues.

That also leads to an idea of how we can do better in the later games. Announce that students who go to all the games, or at least even one of the later games, will get the chance to get tickets earlier for the games the next year, than the ones who only go to the early games. They could wait until next year to decide the specific times, but announce it NOW that there will be benefits next year now going the later games this year. Like have a system like this starting next year:

2016 game Tickets are released at 7AM Monday to students who went to ALL SIX 2015 home games, 8 AM to those who went to five of six, 9 AM to those that made it to four, all the way down to having to wait until 11 or noon if the first game or homecoming is all you went to the previous year. Then at least some students who only go to two games in 2015 would show up wanting to get as good of seats as possible for the first game or homecoming of 2016, see others get better seats cause they went to the later games the previous year, and then decide that maybe they need to go to the later games of that year in contrast to the year before.

GameFAQSAggie wrote:It seems like an ongoing cycle. Get good turnouts for the first few games, and think that "there is more excitement from the students." with the low turnouts from October and November the year before being fresh on our minds. Then with the hopes up AGAIN of doing better in the later games, get more disappointed when we again have a poor turnout for those games. But then remember those, see us AGAIN do well in the early games the next year, and the cycle continues.

That also leads to an idea of how we can do better in the later games. Announce that students who go to all the games, or at least even one of the later games, will get the chance to get tickets earlier for the games the next year, than the ones who only go to the early games. They could wait until next year to decide the specific times, but announce it NOW that there will be benefits next year now going the later games this year. Like have a system like this starting next year:

2016 game Tickets are released at 7AM Monday to students who went to ALL SIX 2015 home games, 8 AM to those who went to five of six, 9 AM to those that made it to four, all the way down to having to wait until 11 or noon if the first game or homecoming is all you went to the previous year. Then at least some students who only go to two games in 2015 would show up wanting to get as good of seats as possible for the first game or homecoming of 2016, see others get better seats cause they went to the later games the previous year, and then decide that maybe they need to go to the later games of that year in contrast to the year before.

Interesting idea, but I wonder if it isn't too complicated. Maybe just have some kind of super-fan list with the names of all the students who attended every home game the prior year and post it in various places around campus. Maybe even add it to the prospectus. I think that might promote more diehardedness in the students.

It's encouraging, but the real barometer for student excitement and lasting attendance will come later in the year. If there are a ton of students at the Wyoming and Nevada games, then I'll be impressed.