Western Carolina Most Viewed SoCon Team in 2016

[superman7515]

After seeing The Citadel released an Alt-Fact four Pinocchio article claiming to be the most viewed SoCon team in 2016, yet only listing their home game average, and thus cut off half of the prospective actual viewers that would have seen a team play, I figured that Western Carolina deserved their props for being the team that was actually viewed by the most fans in 2016, more than 21% more viewers than The Citadel. Teams and total viewers of their games:

Western Carolina - 207,392
Chattanooga - 207,321
Wofford - 166,982
The Citadel - 162,391
Furman - 148,065
Mercer - 143,558
Samford - 131,560
East Tennessee - 91,428
Virginia Military - 77,303

[chattownmocs]

Stfu you left wing pussy

[JSUSoutherner]

Stfu you left wing pussy
Maybe if your attendance didn't suck you would be on top. Oh well.

Maybe if you had played us this year our fans could have given you that extra attendance bump to ride to first. xlolx

[citdog]

After seeing The Citadel released an Alt-Fact four Pinocchio article claiming to be the most viewed SoCon team in 2016, yet only listing their home game average, and thus cut off half of the prospective actual viewers that would have seen a team play, I figured that Western Carolina deserved their props for being the team that was actually viewed by the most fans in 2016, more than 21% more viewers than The Citadel. Teams and total viewers of their games:

Western Carolina - 207,392
Chattanooga - 207,321
Wofford - 166,982
The Citadel - 162,391
Furman - 148,065
Mercer - 143,558
Samford - 131,560
East Tennessee - 91,428
Virginia Military - 77,303

I don't think you know how to read.

[Sir William]

citadel sucks 😉

[citdog]

citadel sucks 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoQax2SHvyk

[JSUSoutherner]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoQax2SHvyk

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170129/fb79a88c8f220c917b88f483139dd08d.jpg

[superman7515]

I don't think you know how to read.

Of course I know how to read, otherwise I would have fallen for the Buzzfeed-esque misleading title that The Citadel led with.

"THE CITADEL WAS SOCON'S MOST-VIEWED TEAM IN 2016

CHARLESTON, S.C. – More people watched The Citadel football team play in 2016 than any Southern Conference program."

Neither of those statements are true, The Citadel had the highest average home attendance, and had the highest ESPN3 viewership; but if you're going solely off people who "watched" the games, more people attended Western Carolina, Chattanooga, and Wofford games, and Chattanooga's game against Alabama alone was viewed by more people (2,437,000) than all three Citadel games on ESPN3 combined, so if you're adding the ESPN viewers, Chattanooga beats The Citadel on both fronts (live attendance and broadcast viewers). Selective stats does not a fact make.

[citdog]

Of course I know how to read, otherwise I would have fallen for the Buzzfeed-esque misleading title that The Citadel led with.

"THE CITADEL WAS SOCON'S MOST-VIEWED TEAM IN 2016

CHARLESTON, S.C. – More people watched The Citadel football team play in 2016 than any Southern Conference program."

The Citadel had the highest average home attendance, and had the highest ESPN3 viewership.

You should have dropped the first bit and then stopped right there.

[walliver]

Of course I know how to read, otherwise I would have fallen for the Buzzfeed-esque misleading title that The Citadel led with.

"THE CITADEL WAS SOCON'S MOST-VIEWED TEAM IN 2016

CHARLESTON, S.C. – More people watched The Citadel football team play in 2016 than any Southern Conference program."

Neither of those statements are true, The Citadel had the highest average home attendance, and had the highest ESPN3 viewership; but if you're going solely off people who "watched" the games, more people attended Western Carolina, Chattanooga, and Wofford games, and Chattanooga's game against Alabama alone was viewed by more people (2,437,000) than all three Citadel games on ESPN3 combined, so if you're adding the ESPN viewers, Chattanooga beats The Citadel on both fronts (live attendance and broadcast viewers). Selective stats does not a fact make.

The Citadel only had 3 ESPN3 games? Are you just counting home conference games? Most SoCon games are now on ESPN3 so I would think it would be more than that.

WCU may well have had the best over-the-air ratings as the American Sports Network station covering the Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville market broadcast a number of WCU games. Apparently they forgot the largest segment of the market and preferentially broadcast South Atlantic D2 games over games involving teams in Greenville and Spartanburg.

[Bisonator]

Are you also taking into account playoff games?

[Smitty]

Well it is nice being considered the top of anything after the disaster of last season.

[Catamount87]

A bit more fun with those statistics. (FYI, these only include the regular season.)

The majority of the SoCon played 5 home games, UTC played 6 while Mercer and VMI played 4. Even with the extra game, UTC still fell 3,060 people in total short of The Citadel. However, The Citadel managed to only average 57.2% of home capacity putting them at 7th in the SoCon. Mercer was tops at 111.5% of capacity. Mercer and WCU are the only teams to average over 10K and average over 75% of capacity. In all fairness with the in-person attendance numbers, WCU did play 2 FBS teams, ECU and South Carolina which accounts for 120,811 people. Most everyone else only played one FBS team.

That all said, kudos to The Citadel for a great season. It was nice to see their fans come out and support them. It's a shame that UTC doesn't get more support and that the Furman fans have found other things to do on Saturday afternoons.

[ElCid]

A bit more fun with those statistics. (FYI, these only include the regular season.)

The majority of the SoCon played 5 home games, UTC played 6 while Mercer and VMI played 4. Even with the extra game, UTC still fell 3,060 people in total short of The Citadel. However, The Citadel managed to only average 57.2% of home capacity putting them at 7th in the SoCon. Mercer was tops at 111.5% of capacity. Mercer and WCU are the only teams to average over 10K and average over 75% of capacity. In all fairness with the in-person attendance numbers, WCU did play 2 FBS teams, ECU and South Carolina which accounts for 120,811 people. Most everyone else only played one FBS team.

That all said, kudos to The Citadel for a great season. It was nice to see their fans come out and support them. It's a shame that UTC doesn't get more support and that the Furman fans have found other things to do on Saturday afternoons.


Dancing classes?

[walliver]

Dancing classes?

They can do that now that they're no longer affiliated with the SBC.

[FUBeAR]

The majority of the SoCon played 5 home games, UTC played 6 while Mercer and VMI played 4.
Mercer was tops at 111.5% of capacity.
Mercer and WCU are the only teams to average over 10K and average over 75% of capacity.
In all fairness with the in-person attendance numbers, WCU did play 2 FBS teams, ECU and South Carolina which accounts for 120,811 people.

Just for the sake of accuracy...

Mercer played 5 Home Games also in 2016 (El Cid, TTU, WCU, ETSU, and FU)
Total Reported Official Attendance was 56,186.
Average Attendance was 11,237.
I believe capacity is 10,200. So, that's 110.2% if capacity for home games.

[PaladinFan]

A bit more fun with those statistics. (FYI, these only include the regular season.)

The majority of the SoCon played 5 home games, UTC played 6 while Mercer and VMI played 4. Even with the extra game, UTC still fell 3,060 people in total short of The Citadel. However, The Citadel managed to only average 57.2% of home capacity putting them at 7th in the SoCon. Mercer was tops at 111.5% of capacity. Mercer and WCU are the only teams to average over 10K and average over 75% of capacity. In all fairness with the in-person attendance numbers, WCU did play 2 FBS teams, ECU and South Carolina which accounts for 120,811 people. Most everyone else only played one FBS team.

That all said, kudos to The Citadel for a great season. It was nice to see their fans come out and support them. It's a shame that UTC doesn't get more support and that the Furman fans have found other things to do on Saturday afternoons.

Furman's had two three win seasons separated by a four win season. I will say there's as much excitement about the program (and today's recruiting class) as I've seen in years.

Mercer averages over 10k fans when counting tickets sold, not fannies in the seats.

[FUBeAR]

Mercer averages over 10k fans when counting tickets sold, not fannies in the seats.

I am not aware of the methodology which Mercer uses to count their official reported attendance.
Apparently, PaladinFan works in Mercer's Athletics Department or is close, personal friends with Julian Assange.

[Catamount87]

Just for the sake of accuracy...

Mercer played 5 Home Games also in 2016 (El Cid, TTU, WCU, ETSU, and FU)
Total Reported Official Attendance was 56,186.
Average Attendance was 11,237.
I believe capacity is 10,200. So, that's 110.2% if capacity for home games.

Sorry, my bad somehow I don't have that last game on my spreadsheet. Still, any way you slice it, Mercer has excellent fan support, fills the stands making for a great game day experience.

[PaladinFan]

I am not aware of the methodology which Mercer uses to count their official reported attendance.
Apparently, PaladinFan works in Mercer's Athletics Department or is close, personal friends with Julian Assange.

They almost assuredly calculate tickets sold, which according to the NCAA rulebooks is an acceptable method of calculating attendance. I don't dispute those numbers are likely accurate. Good for them for selling so many season tickets. Truly.

I do think any reasonable person can look at a half full stadium and rows of largely empty seats and come to the conclusion that the stadium is not at 110% capacity. So, I feel fairly safe in assuming that they aren't counting the turnstile (and they don't have to).

My only point is if we are going to start having some chest thumping competition about attendance, then measure that using the same standard.

[ElCid]

They almost assuredly calculate tickets sold, which according to the NCAA rulebooks is an acceptable method of calculating attendance. I don't dispute those numbers are likely accurate. Good for them for selling so many season tickets. Truly.

I do think any reasonable person can look at a half full stadium and rows of largely empty seats and come to the conclusion that the stadium is not at 110% capacity. So, I feel fairly safe in assuming that they aren't counting the turnstile (and they don't have to).

My only point is if we are going to start having some chest thumping competition about attendance, then measure that using the same standard.

I was there for one game and have seen a few on TV/ESPN3. Lots of empty seats in Macon.

[FUBeAR]

if we are going to start having some chest thumping competition about attendance, then measure that using the same standard.

I...

...didn't "start"
...didn't do any "chest thumping"
...just corrected a few data errors without any positive or negative commentary about that data.

You...on the other hand...

[citdog]

I...

...didn't "start"
...didn't do any "chest thumping"
...just corrected a few data errors without any positive or negative commentary about that data.

You...on the other hand...

furman sucks