Stop the slide, head to the field this fall

Maybe you’re planning to attend a college football game this fall.

If so…

You’ll be very welcome.

Hey, somebody might meet you in the parking lot with a complimentary foam finger that your family can wave ‘til everyone’s completely exhausted.

Yes, yes, that last item was a bit of kidding around, but there’s no doubt that most schools — local, regional and national — are searching for fans who will come and watch some games in person.

Start with this nugget: Total attendance among Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams dropped again last year, continuing a trend that doesn’t seem to have a bottom.

Our part of the country is leading the way down, as well.

Attendance in the Pac-12 fell to an average of 46,442, a dip of 3,159 from 2017 — and by far the largest drop among the Power 5 conferences.

In fact, actually getting out to see college football has become less and less enticing throughout the West, where there are two major conferences (Pac-12 and Mountain West) totaling 24 schools.

Of that group, just four averaged 50,000 or better for home games last year — and two of those (Southern Cal and UCLA) draw fans from the massive Los Angeles metro area.

OH, AND by the way, it’s not like tradition-rich USC packed the Los Angeles Coliseum (55,449 average with capacity at 78,467), nor did UCLA see folks fighting for tickets at the historic Rose Bowl (51,164 with a capacity of 90,888).

The only truly big dog west of the Kansas wheat fields is Washington, which boasted an average of 69,068 — an admirable total, although once again, Husky Stadium is sitting within the nation’s 10th-largest metropolitan area.

There’s plenty of money around the place, as well, and you’ll see in a minute why that actually matters.

As for our success stories…

Oregon lured an average of 53,016 to Autzen Stadium, while unaffiliated BYU drew 52,476 despite having no conference rivals.

Before you ask, yes, there is a connection to winning in these numbers.

In the struggling Mountain West, Boise State (33,389) and Fresno State (31,390) are two of just three conference teams to average over 20,000 — San Diego State is the other — and the conference title game has featured Boise State against Fresno each of the last two years.

UCLA and USC both have played below longtime standards for the past few seasons, while Oregon, Washington and BYU (to some extent) have enjoyed plenty of victory celebrations.

But winning isn’t everything.

Cost of tickets, parking and concessions have driven away even some diehard fans, and most telling of all, you can catch almost every FBS-level game on TV these days.

The lure of a comfy sofa and hi-def replays is keeping thousands at home.

IT MIGHT seem ironic, but Washington State is an attendance success story despite being last in the Pac-12 with an average of 30,091 in 2018.

Why the smiles?

Well, Martin Stadium holds just 32,952 after its latest renovation in 2014, so it’s nearly full for every game, and the fact that Pullman is far off the beaten track is offset by genuine student enthusiasm.

Wazzu offers a great gameday experience — and before you say that Mike Leach and his Air Raid offense have kept fans coming, it’s instructive to note that attendance has been stable even when the Cougars weren’t winning.

Example: Just to pick a year at random, Wazzu went 4-8 pre-Leach in 2011 — but still drew 28,791 for its home games.

The Cougs averaged 30,647 for the five-year period from 2013-17.

And then there’s Idaho.

Obviously, the Vandals have the same geography problem as Washington State, what with being just down the road, plus the less-than-thrilling atmosphere of the Kibbie Dome.

There was a lot of argument when Idaho moved back down to the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and took up residence with some old friends in the Big Sky Conference last year.

Yet the bottom line was that Idaho was never likely to compete or draw with FBS counterparts – and attendance seemed to prove it.

The Vandals averaged a paltry 10,533 in their 16,000-seat dome during 2017, their final season in FBS, then saw that number rise slightly to 11,280 last year in the Big Sky.

AND IT’S not like you can’t get crowds at the FCS level.

Montana averaged 24,677 for home games as a Big Sky member last year.

It’s worth noting that Griz loyalists can’t see their team on TV very often, and that makes a huge difference.

So why not Idaho?

Look, there’s too much money available for schools to cut down on cable or streaming television exposure.

That ain’t happening.

So the goal for college football, if it’s going to remain a destination event, seems to be providing gameday excitement.

Plenty of university administrators now claim that games must be presented like musical concerts.

Whatever works.

But the downward slide needs to stop, because the sport needs a live audience.

It just does.

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns for The Press appear on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Steve also contributes “Zags Tracker” package on Gonzaga basketball once monthly during the off season.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com