Attendance

The NCAA has released 2014 attendance figures by division, by conference and by school. (LINK, LINK)

Here are the home attendance numbers for Ivy League schools:

Yale 15,193  

Harvard 15,018 

Princeton 9,865 

Penn 8,720 

Cornell 6,647 

Brown 5,756 

Columbia 5,576 

Dartmouth 5,549

Montana led the nation with 23,777 fans per game, with James Madison next at 19, 816. Yale was ninth in the nation, Harvard was 10th and Princeton (26th) was the only other Ivy in the top 30.

For comparison, here's the home attendance for Patriot League schools:

Holy Cross 6,748
Lehigh 6,249
Lafayette 6,054
Colgate 4,844
Fordham 4,663
Bucknell 3,530
Georgetown 2,124   

Home attendance for Dartmouth's 2015 non-conference opponents:

Central Connecticut 3,078
Sacred Heart 2,681
Georgetown 2,124

There were five schools in the FCS that averaged fewer than 2,000 fans per game, all from the northeast region. Three are members of the Northeast Conference (Duquesne, Robert Morris, St. Francis, Pa.) one is a former member of that conference (Monmouth) and the other is in the Pioneer Football League (Marist).

FCS Attendance by Conference:

1. Southwestern 12,781
2. Missouri Valley 10,807
3. Big Sky 9,508
4. Ivy 9,2025. MEAC 8,765
6. CAA 8,667
7. Southern 8,204
8. Southland 8,025
9. Ohio Valley 7,452
10. Big South 6,848
11. Patriot 5,914
12. Pioneer 3,282
13. NEC 2,152

Dartmouth Home Attendance Over the Years:

1980 – 12,725
1985 – 9,405
1990 – 7,482
1995 – 5,797
2000 – 5,635
2005 – 5,317
2006 – 5,597
2007 – 5,498
2008 – 5,136
2009 – 4,103
2010 – 5,971
2011 – 5,847
2012 – 6,402
2013 – 5,807
2014 – 5,549

Green Alert Take – Dartmouth attendance has been relatively stable for the past 20 years. Anyone decrying the capacity changes at Memorial Field needs to realize despite aggressive promotional efforts, the days of five-figure average attendance in Hanover are, unfortunately, a thing of the past.