dtwalrus {l Wrote}:I'm going to preface this by saying that I was always the type of person that would immediately dismiss anyone that complained about BC's move to the ACC, but after looking at the attendance numbers in detail over the last few days I'm really starting to think that the move from the Big East to the ACC is the biggest precipitant of the drop off.
Here are attendance numbers by year with the corresponding home schedule (OOC in parentheses):
Before:
1998 - 41,200 - Rutgers, Temple, Virginia Tech, Syracuse, (Navy, Notre Dame)
1999 - 41,347 - Pittsburgh, Miami, West Virginia, (Baylor, Northeastern)
2000 - 39,327 - Virginia Tech, Syracuse, Rutgers, Temple, (Navy, Uconn)
2001 - 42,640 - West Virginia, Temple, Pittsburgh, Miami, (Stanford, Army, Notre Dame)
2002 - 41,106 - Virginia Tech, Syracuse, Rutgers, (UConn, Stanford, Central Michigan, Navy)
2003 - 42,604 - Miami, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, (Wake Forest, Ball State, Notre Dame)
2004 - 43,190 - Uconn, Rutgers, Syracuse (Penn State, UMass)
After:
2005 - 39,429 - FSU, Virginia, Wake Forest, NCST, (Army, Ball State)
2006 - 38,843 - Clemson, Virginia Tech, Duke, Maryland, (BYU, Maine, Buffalo)
2007 - 41,990 - Wake Forest, NCST, FSU, Miami, (Army, UMass, Bowling Green)
2008 - 41,037 - Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Maryland, (Central Florida, Rhode Island, Notre Dame)
2009 - 35,716 - Wake Forest, Florida State, NC State, North Carolina, (Northeastern, Kent State, Central Michigan)
2010 - 38,369 - Virginia Tech, Maryland, Clemson, Virginia, (Weber State, Kent State, Notre Dame)
2011 - 35,709 - Duke, Wake Forest, FSU, NC State, (Northwestern, UMass)
2012 - 37,020 - Miami, Clemson, Maryland, Virginia Tech, (Maine, Notre Dame)
2013 - 33,006 - Wake Forest, FSU, Virginia Tech, NC State, (Villanova, Army)
2014 - 34,270 - Pittsburgh, Clemson, Louisville, Syracuse, (USC, Maine, Colorado State)
You spent all that time analyzing the data, but missed the biggest factor. 2005 was the first year BC started scanning tickets... and, as a result, is the first year they started reporting actual attendance (i.e. tickets used). Before 2005, BC only reported tickets sold. Essentially, any comparison between pre- and post-2005 is apples vs. oranges.