I think there's a cultural aspect at play here

by Domer99, John Wesley Powell's Expedition Island, Friday, May 17, 2013, 09:57 (4771 days ago) @ Jay
edited by Domer99, Friday, May 17, 2013, 10:28

Even the students who don't like football to begin with get caught up in it because everyone else embraces football. Michigan is an entirely different animal. It's a state university that has to pander to a lot of different constituencies, some of whom have little desire to attend football games.

Among BCS programs, I am going to guess that there isn't a larger student attendance ratio at any other school in America. Notre Dame allots 8.5 sections for the students (sections 28-36, http://www.und.com/facilities/nd-stadium-seating-chart.html ), which comprise 10,795 seats ( http://www.und.com/facilities/nd-stadium.html ). That's compared to an undergraduate enrollment of 8,371. That's nearly a 130% attendance rate using the undergrad enrollment as a measure.

Now, I realize that St. Mary's and graduate students are factored into the 10,795 number, so it's really not fair to claim such an attendance rate that actually exceeds the enrollment but it's an astounding number to think about.

It basically means that the students nearly universally embrace football as a part of the culture.

I realize I am getting a little off topic as the original question was about student turnout rates and arrival times. But I think the raw numbers kind of speak to the point tangentially if not anecdotally. Regardless of what people want to say about the changing composition of the student body, it still remains that the student body values football and shows up at a clip much higher than any other BCS program.