Around the Big Ten

[UMStan White]

Big Ten underdogs in all 10 bowl games

[froot loops]

Baylor's offense is a terrible matchup for MSU's matchup-zone, for the same reason Oregon was; they will put great stress on the OLB/Safety banjos. There might not be anybody in the country who is better at combining play-action with combo routes than Art Briles, and they all but have a 100-meter relay team at wideout. Against this MSU will be playing C1 or C0 concepts...they'll throw for 400 on Sparty, mostly in big chunks.

Sparty better not sleep on Baylor's defense either...they are fast as well.

Yeah we'll see.

[Dr. Strangelove]

AVG attendance for teams this year and % change from the previous year

Ohio State - 106,296 (+1.3%)
Michigan - 104,909 (-5.99%)
Penn State - 101,623 (+5.21%)
Nebraska - 91,249 (+0.35%)
Wisconsin - 79,520 (+0.77%)
Michigan St - 74,681 (+3.25%)
Iowa - 67,512 (+0.58%)
Rutgers - 50,632 (+8.77%)
Minnesota - 47,865 (+0.14%)
Maryland - 46,981 (+20.84%)
Indiana - 41,657 (-6.08%)
Illinois - 41,549 (-5.11%)
Northwestern - 38,613 (-1.76%)
Purdue - 35,269 (-27.95%)

As might be expected, Rutgers and Maryland saw the biggest jumps in attendance. Rutgers averaged close to a sellout all season. Michigan obviously dropped but Penn State and Sparty saw modest increases. Most of the other big teams were steady.

The biggest drops occurred in the bottom quarter of the league. I have numbers for a lot of teams going back quite a ways and Illinois' attendance was its worst since 1998.

More shocking is the complete drop-off in attendance at Purdue. I've got figures going back to 1960 and, as far as I can tell, this year is the worst-attended season of Purdue football since at least that year. They only had one game top 40,000 fans this season (MSU). Even if you include their game against Notre Dame in Indianapolis as a home game, the avg attendance would still be the worst since 1960.

[iam416]

Purdue had no Michigan, no Ohio State and no Notre Dame at home. My guess is they always had at least one of those three and those games were typically sell-outs.

But, yes, it's horrible. Though, the Boilers showed some life. Certainly better than last year's NAIA squad. However, if Hazell fails, I think the should look long and hard at Cutcliffe.

[WM Wolverine]

University of Illinois' location isn't good for attendance. Illini seem to have a good amount of fan support when I visit relatives in Illinois or visit Chicago. Illini's location just isn't populous enough and its too long drive of a drive from most of its alumni...

Hopefully Rutgers & Maryland can sustain if not grow upon those figures if and when they expand their stadiums with their B10 money.

[iam416]

UIUC isn't that far from Chicago. No more than 1.5 hours. It is pretty far from most other places in Illinois. It's far more accessible than, say, Happy Valley.

Their biggest problem is a prolonged period of mediocrity at best. They have generations of fan who aren't used to making the trip to watch them play because it ain't worth it. Whereas Penn State fans (and others) have grown up doing it -- it's in their DNA. So even when they are poop they get 90K.

[WM Wolverine]

Very correct the Illini need to have a lot more success but the trip from Chicago and northern Illinois is more than I expect from casual fans. I always wonder why the Illini can never make a good coaching hire and have Iowa type success. They have 'some' talent in their backyard, it's just that the best of it is poached by ND, M and Wisconsin. With more success, those recruits might even actually stay in-state.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Illinois was drawing close to 60,000 a game for a couple years when Zook was there. But now they are creeping towards 50 year lows as well.

Purdue seriously dropped about 12,000 in just a year. That's pretty alarming. And they are a lot more accessible than Illinois. That's like an easy one hour drive from Indianapolis. Depending on where you're coming from in Chicago it's actually a little quicker than UIC too.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Gary Andersen quitting to take the Oregon State job...wow...Urban drove him from the league

[Dr. Strangelove]

[ame]https://twitter.com/ESPNRittenberg/status/542811645387767808[/ame]

[ame]https://twitter.com/ESPNRittenberg/status/542809749931454464[/ame]

[entropy]

I'm not sure how I should feel... thinking of their fanbase... smiling actually

[Dr. Strangelove]

In a roundabout way Nebraska did make this possible

[iam416]

You'll be damn giddy if they hire Bo!

[entropy]

can't help but wonder if Anderson would have come to UNL...

[Mike]

So the last two coaches who faced Meyer have been fired or fled the scene. This does not bode well for the Nick.