Since we have no game today...

How about we talk about attendance, since that issue has never seem to come to any widely accepted explanation. Pre warning - it's long, so I am aware that you won't read.

Anyway, a lot of people complain these days about how LSU fans have really let the team down on game day with poor attendance and leaving early. It's common in these arguments to blame the newfound sense of entitlement amongst our fans for the reason that we have seen this fall-off.

However, while this may be some, small contributing factor, I feel this is very far off base of the biggest problem. The reason that the attendance lags for smaller games and decreases at halftime of every opponent not named Bama has far more to do with the advancement of technology rather than any apathy/entitlement in our fan base.

Seemingly every day, a new, better, bigger TV comes out with higher definition making at-home game watching a more viable scenario. Now don't get me wrong, I despise seeing Tiger Stadium empty as much as anyone, and it is, without a doubt, a far way off from what it use to be on any given game. However, when the enjoyment of the next best alternative increases, it makes the demand for actual attendance decrease. This is consumer behavior 101.

There are many things that we can blame on our, for whatever reason, shitty fan base (at least 20% of them anyway). But attendance really isn't something that should be put specifically on a change in our fans' attitudes, nearly as much as it should be put on the advancement in technology.

And in support of this, one would merely need to take a closer look at attendance across the rest of the country. We see our own collapse in attendance because that is all we observe, but plenty of schools across the nation are having these same problems. For example, Stanford had 31,000 people at their game last night because it was raining. I know that Stanford isn't nearly the football program we are, but 31,000 people with a trip to the Rose Bowl on the line would be seemingly inexplicable. The only explanation is that individuals deemed that their enjoyment of being at the actual game would be severely diminished by the weather, whereas there is an extremely enjoyable environment to watch the game at home. I highly doubt they have that few people in attendance in any sort of weather if the alternative to actual attendance was watching the game on one of those old TV's popular in the early 90's. You remember, the ones that rarely were bigger than 27 inches and had a picture that looks like someone was intentionally trying to blur the screen (at lest when comparing them to what people have now).

TL, I know. But the point being, this isn't an LSU problem. It's a college football problem. Anyway, there's my rant for the morning. Whether you agree or bash it as nonsensical rambling of an old man, hopefully discussing will be more enjoyable than sitting around thinking about how we should be the ones kicking off verse Georgia in a few hours. Enjoy!