Boston College vs. Florida State Attendance: 39,111

In our weekly Guess The Attendance thread, I guessed this week's attendance would be somewhere around 39,000, as did about 23% of voters in our poll. The final figure turned out to be 39,111 according to the box score - not as bad as some had feared earlier in the week, and better than the last two Friday night games, but falling short of the 40K+ crowds that BC drew for their two biggest home games last season, USC and Clemson.

I will say that from my vantage point in the upper deck, the crowd looked good, and I thought it was actually going to end up being over 40K - making me eat my words after lamenting the sky-high ticket prices BC charged for this game. As it turns out, they got a solid turnout anyway, but I do think they could have pushed a sellout with a more reasonable "get in the door' price. I know this is purely anecdotal, but several (non-alum, casual fan) friends asked me this week if there tickets available this week because they'd be interested in seeing BC face FSU... then balked when I told them the cheapest tickets were $55.

I would guess that odds are pretty poor that BC cracks 40,000 at any point this season, though maybe a strong mid-season run will boost attendance for the last two home games against Virginia Tech and NC State.

Next week should be interesting for attendance-watchers. Northern Illinois is a pretty good team and a team most BC fans probably haven't seen in person. That said, they may be a solid team, but they're not a big game. In addition, there's the factor of having home games in four consecutive weekends, and how that might impact the turnout next week. However, this is also the first Saturday afternoon game of the year against a legitimate opponent, so I still feel like it'll probably be a decent crowd (upper 30s).

One other note about the crowd: I thought the atmosphere was excellent, and the crowd really rode the wave of the strong defense. If only they were given the opportunity to cheer a scoring play, the non-existent retractable roof would have been blown off. Oh well; maybe next time.