The Oregon Ducks and the Liberty Flames faced off in this year’s Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day. While not many people expected this to be a competitive game, it did highlight a looming issue that college football has. We will discuss that below and more.
Oregon Ducks vs. Liberty Flames Fiesta Bowl Attendance
So, what was the attendance of this game? Well, the official number of people at this bowl game was 47,769 people. Just how bad is this? The stadium this was played in can typically fit about 63,000 people. However, this is expandable to 73,000 people.
This means that at the maximum capacity, the Fiesta Bowl only had about 65% capacity. Now, there are a few legitimate reasons why this turned out to be the case.
The first reason is the location. This game took place in Glendale, AZ. Considering that the two schools playing in this game are located in Oregon and Virginia, this was not a short journey for each fan base.
On top of this, the kickoff time was early considering where the game was located. Because this was a west coast game, it was going to start earlier in local time than most bowls. However, this bowl game took that to the extreme. The kickoff was at about 11 a.m. local time. As a result, it was not the most desirable time for locals to go see a football game.
Finally, the game was not expected to be competitive. The Oregon Ducks were more than 17-point favorites against the Liberty Flames. They won by a final score of 45-6.
New Year’s Day Attendance in Early Bowl Games
There were two other early bowl games played on New Year’s Day. Both of these games were played in the central Florida area. These bowl games were the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl between the Tennessee Volunteers and Iowa Hawkeyes along with the ReliaQuest Bowl between the LSU Tigers and the Wisconsin Badgers.
How many people attended these games? The answer was not a lot. The average attendance was just over 37,000 people for each bowl game. As a result, these bowl games were lucky to have any people sitting in the upper deck.
Looming Bowl Format Issue
A big issue that non-playoff bowl games have is the fact that they are considered exhibition games. As a result, a lot of these games do not have the most talented players participating. This is due to factors such as the bowl games not counting towards the regular season record, players declaring for the NFL Draft, and other players already entering the transfer portal.
This is even impacting some of the bigger bowls. The Georgia Bulldogs blew out the Florida State Seminoles 63-3. Yet, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart sounded off about the bowl format causing players not to show up.
Thankfully, the College Football Playoff is expanding to 12 teams next year. That should mean there are at least a few less meaningless bowl games. However, issues surrounding the transfer portal and what to do about the rest of the bowls loom large.
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