Quote:
Originally Posted by billmac91
I think most would be surprised at how non-fanatical most fanbases are in the ACC.
Doak was rarely packed while I attended FSU, and our bowl game attendance was always pretty poor. We got outnumbered in the Gator Bowl, held in Jacksonville (an 1.5 hours from Tally), by West Virginia fans. FSU fans claim to be the best in the country, like many other fanbases, but there just isn't any comparison to big time SEC/Big 10/Big 12 schools.
Obviously, Miami is about as bad a fan base as you can have for a major program. The 2002 Fiesta Bowl was 90% OSU fans.
The only "real" fanbase in the ACC is Clemson. Clemson is comparable to an SEC/Big 10 school when it comes to support.
So yes, Charlotte would be a better location, but I think ACC Big-wigs mistake their conference for something it is not. You can sell out an SEC Championship game and a Big 12 Championship game, but I doubt you'd ever do that for the ACC. |
Now you've done it. I gotta stick up for my own school now
Scott Stadium holds 61,500 officially - in reality, anything above 60,000 is essentially a sellout, as the stands themselves only hold about 56 or 57,000 (everyone else crams themselves onto the grass hill.) Lowest-attended game this year was 57,681, and all but two games hit the 60,000 mark. Not to mention, all fans except students have to travel to the game, because Charlottesville is not a big place.
All the North Carolina schools are not really football schools - their mantra is "just you wait til basketball season." So you're right when it comes to them (and that's 1/3 of the ACC). Miami inexplicably timed its descent into suckitude to coincide with joining the ACC, I just don't get them.
But aside from Clemson, I think you'd find that Maryland, UVA, GT, and VT are extremely tough places to win a football game. Also I don't think UNC/Duke/etc. (the football dregs of the conference) are any different from, say, Iowa State/Baylor/every year at Kansas but this one.
Sorry. Waayyyy off topic. Not my fault, it's billmac's, he made me do it.
By the way, billmac - in the case of FSU, I don't know if this is really the case, but the impression a lot of people have of FSU is that these days they expect nothing less than the best bowls, so they won't travel to the other ones. I don't know how true that is, but it's at least plausible given how psycho FSU boosters have been over things like Jeff Bowden at OC.