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[QUOTE="Scooch, post: 188423, member: 628"]
We all know that if 49,550 packed the Dome six times each Fall we might do better on the recruiting trail.  That being said, we're hardly an anomaly on that front -- bad teams tend to draw poorly.  Everyone [I]loves[/I] to compare our attendance to the cream of the SEC and Big Ten, but that's basically insane.  We're not that, and we're not really up against most of those schools for recruits anyway.  
 
Think of it this way... SU drew 40K/game this year and we finished last in the Big East.  The last place teams in the Big Ten, Indiana, Minnesota and Illinois, drew 41K, 47K and 49K respectively.  The last place teams in the ACC, Maryland, Duke, and BC, drew 42K, 24K and 36K respectively.  The last place team in the Big 12, Kansas, drew 42K.   Hell, we outdrew UConn (36K), Cincinnati (32K), and were within range of Rutgers (43K) and Pitt (46K).
 
I'm not saying our fanbase is great, but I think our fanbase is more typical than most want to admit.  We've lost A LOT of games for a decade.  And we still average around 40K and manage to pop over 45K on occassion.  I mean we had 42K in the house for a Friday night game against USF.  You know who else we drew 42K for?...  Rutgers... on a Saturday afternoon in 1998... the week after we crushed Michigan in the Big House with Donovan McNabb on the team.
 
I mean I get the frustration, I'd like to see a sellout every game too.  But I think using attendance as an excuse for recruiting is kind of lame.  OPA posted that every team we lost to in that 0-5 stretch, save for UConn, had better talent that us. I might buy that.  We also either outdrew, or drew comparably, to all those teams.  So what's the excuse, really?  How did Cincy build a program when drawing 24K a game to their bandbox?  How did Schiano improve recruiting playing in front of nobody in NJ?  Just sounds like excuses to me.
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