Article below from Craig Haley of STATS FCS.
(STATS) - Nothing takes the air out of the later stages of the FCS season quite like ... well, the start of the playoffs.
Huh? How so? OK, that's an overstatement, but the annual thrilling finish to the regular season always gets a smack the face over Thanksgiving weekend when the playoffs open to smaller crowds.
It can remain a slow climb out of the attendance hole. The action may sizzle on the field, but the host schools play catch-up with the bottom line, even as average crowd sizes increase with each round.
There's no easy fix to the annual attendance problem as the host schools try to meet their expenses, and it's especially bad for first-round games. That's when schools face less than a week of preparation following the announcement of the playoff field and play over a holiday weekend when even loyal fans can be traveling, many students are away from campus, the weather is often worsening and complimentary tickets, which drive up regular-season attendance, aren't available. It's even a rivalry weekend for big FBS games to draw away attention, even more so than usual.
The average attendance in last weekend's first round was particularly poor at 5,634, with a high of 14,575 at Montana (that's more than 11,000 below than the average regular-season game) and an embarrassing low of 997 at Dayton. Montana was up slightly from a home game in last year's first round, but Northern Iowa and Sam Houston State, which hosted games both years, were down quite a bit from last year, when the average attendance for eight first-round games was 6,548.
FCS schools eventually made it to an average of 8,295 for the 22 games played at school sites before the championship game drew 20,918 to Frisco - driven by the North Dakota State fan base.
A query of people involved in the playoffs at FCS schools expressed frustration over the annual attendance woes, including such reactions as "I can tell you all of the problems, but no good solutions," and "I think I could retire if I knew the answer."
A majority of those surveyed talked about moving playoff games from Thanksgiving weekend as the way to get the postseason off to a better start attendance-wise. It's probably not going to happen, though.
Starting the entire regular season a week earlier - as only Montana and North Dakota State did this year - would only serve to change the valuable weekend before Thanksgiving, when everybody is playing, to accommodate just eight playoff games. Not starting the playoffs until the week after Thanksgiving would push the national semifinals up against the Christmas holiday in some seasons, so that would be frowned upon. Plus, by starting the playoffs a week later, the seeded teams which have first-round byes would sit for three weeks, not two, and that's too long.
So as long as the field is 24 teams - which is well-received - a change to the start of the playoffs is unlikely.
"We talk to (schools) about being pro-active," said Randy L. Buhr, associate director of championships for the NCAA, "and reaching out to season ticket holders, their single-game purchasers, alumni, youth camp lists or any other crossover sport data bases that they might have to email and try to get information out to promote the game. Knowing social media is a cost-effective and immediate platform to leverage and try to promote the game as well ... try to keep the local media informed so that they can spread the word in the local market place and go from there."
It always comes back to money, though.
The NCAA needs to keep the host bids reasonable so schools can keep down ticket prices, which beginning with the second round can't be lower than what a school charges in the regular season.
Regionalizing postseason matchups are a big aspect of the playoffs because doing so brings familiarity between opponent fan bases and increases the likelihood of fans of the road team traveling to a game. But even that aspect is lessened today by every playoff game's availability through broadcast or streaming.
Providing guaranteed home games to the eight-best unseeded teams not only would create a fairer playoff system, but it would allow the NCAA to at least indicate to schools behind the scenes to start preparing marketing campaigns. Early knowledge of a potential playoff game coming Thanksgiving weekend might prompt schools to reopen dorm rooms earlier to increase student involvement.
Fortunately, attendance is expected to rise with the eight playoff games this week - the seeded host schools will have had a two-week buildup - but the crowd sizes sometimes don't match the enormity of the games.
The NCAA is telling schools to be more proactive in their efforts. As the governing body, it's time for the NCAA to help schools and conferences solve the problem, not just wish for a solution.
