People need to delve a little bit deeper than spring game attendance to truly analyze where we are as a program. This is not something I'd expect most SEC fanboys to (a) do or (b) understand. I'm certainly not going to lose sleep over it or their opinions of it.
I'm sure KY, MissSt and the like had tens of thousands at theirs. Hope they had fun with that and their bound for nowhere programs.
Spin it however you want to. Miss State had 21k this year, Kentucky hasn't played this year yet, but last year they claimed over 50k--supporting Stoops, New Era, etc. Do these big numbers mean they well be good? Probably not. And I don't have any way to know if the numbers in the link are true, but in my opinion, a program that has 1500 supporter to a practice has way, way less interest in its fanbase than on that has 21,000 showing up. Absolutely there cannot be a conclusion drawn on the quality of the team---just on the support for that team. It is part of the equation these days. Does your fan base sell tickets? Do they go to bowl games? If we book them to play Notre Dame in Dublin, will 30 people make the trip? Will their fans, in their home city even turn on the TV to watch them on Thursday night? Time was when Georgia Tech was money at most venues in the country. Not no more. Diluted schedules, inferior conference affilitation, lack of support at the live gate are all hurting us. Friday night was unfortunate, but real. The game was poorly attended, but before that it was poorly marketed, poorly conceived. poorly planned, not well scheduled. What would have been the problem with turning on the weather channel, postponing the game to Saturday afternoon, and getting 7000 people out? After all it was just practice, right? It was not done professionally, and the end result is we looked embarrassingly amatuerish. Dare I suggest lame? Perception counts for a lot. We are what we are right now.