With all of the recent talk of tarping Heinz, I was looking at some attendance and stadium capacity stats. I looked at the top 100 (by attendance) D-1 FBS schools.
· Pitt finished 47th in average attendance (46,076) for 2016. That includes the Heinz Field record setting game against PSU.
· Pitt has 28th largest stadium by capacity. Teams that play in larger stadiums are: Temple, San Diego St, UCLA, USC, Missouri, Washington, Texas A&M, Penn State, South Carolina, FSU, Arkansas, Texas, Tennessee, Iowa, Wisconsin, LSU, Florida, Clemson, Auburn, Michigan State, Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Nebraska
· Here is breakdown of percent full (average 2016 attendance / stadium capacity):
o 30-40% Full: UTSA, Temple
o 40-50% Full: UTEP, Rice, Hawaii
o 50-60% Full: Kansas, New Mexico, San Diego St, Louisiana-LF, USF, Memphis
o 60-70% Full: Purdue, Fresno St, Air Force, Virginia, Marshall, Syracuse, UConn, Colorado State, Pitt
o 70-80%: LA Tech, BC, Wyoming, UCLA, USC, Ark State, Missouri, Northwestern, SMU, Cal, Duke, Troy, Illinois, Tulane, Maryland, Vanderbilt, Toledo, Western Michigan, Southern Miss
o 80-100%: The remaining 60 teams in FBS.
At just under 70% full on average, Pitt should definitely look into tarping some of the upper sections. Even with a spike in attendance, they are still going to be playing in too large of a stadium.