Tuesday Football: BCS stadiums, by the numbers

As college-football fandom prepares for the release of the first BCS rankings, I thought I was going to write a big post about the importance of the sport to so many public universities in the U.S.  That would have entailed spending several hundred words to state the obvious:  the BCS is so big, it could've been the sixth monster in Monsters vs. Aliens.

Instead, I'll cite some statistics about college-football stadiums.  A few details about the 61-venue sample:

1. Only stadiums at public universities count.  I'm intentionally excluding several private schools with big football programs, including USC, Stanford, BYU, Miami (Fla.), Notre Dame and Boston College.
2. The sample covers only the six conferences explicitly covered by the BCS scheme, plus the Mountain West.
3. Statistics reflect conference alignments for 2012.  Nebraska counts as a Big Ten team; Boise State, as a Mountain West club; and Colorado and Utah, as Pac-10 sides.

And here are the simple numbers, courtesy of a Wikipedia aggregation.  Wikipedia may not be the greatest source for this kind of stuff, but for this post, the numbers are good enough.

Atlantic Coast Conference: 

• Included colleges: 8
• Average stadium capacity:  64 302
• Largest included stadium:  Memorial Stadium, Clemson (82 300)
• Smallest included stadium:  Byrd Stadium, Maryland (51 500)

Big XII Conference: 

• Included colleges:  9
• Average stadium capacity:  68 031
• Largest included stadium:  Memorial Stadium, Texas (101 119)
  
• Smallest included stadium:  Bill Snyder Family Stadium, Kansas State (50 300)

Big East Conference: 

• Included colleges:  5
• Average stadium capacity:  56 672
• Largest included stadium:  Raymond James Stadium, South Florida (82 300)
  
• Smallest included stadium:  Rentschler Field, Connecticut (40 000)

Big Ten Conference: 

• Included colleges:  11
• Average stadium capacity:  78 220
• Largest included stadium:  Michigan Stadium, Michigan (109 901)
• Smallest indluded stadium:  Memorial Stadium, Indiana (52 180)

Mountain West Conference: 

• Included colleges:  7
• Average stadium capacity:  43 189
• Largest included stadium:  Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego State (70 561)
  
• Smallest included stadium:  War Memorial Stadium, Wyoming (32 580)

Pacific 10 Conference: 

• Included colleges:  10
• Average stadium capacity:  60 177
• Largest included stadium:  Rose Bowl, UCLA (92 542)
  
• Smallest included stadium:  Martin Stadium, Washington State (35 117)

Southeastern Conference: 

• Included colleges:  11
• Average stadium capacity:  82 268
• Largest included stadium:  Neyland Stadium, Tennessee (102 459)
  
• Smallest included stadium:  Davis Wade Stadium, Mississippi State (55 082)

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Fantasy update:   Another weird week.  One team did nothing but score touchdowns, the other scored exactly one -- and both won their games.

In a spectacular first-place showdown with the Tin Men, both teams posted the week's two highest scores -- but the Middlemen prevailed, 144-123.  Spectacular performances by Matt Forte, Chris Johnson, Miles Austin and the Atlanta defense powered a record-setting day.  Both teams now stand at 4-1, but I hold the head-to-head tiebreaker.

Meanwhile, the Fluttering Horde struggled, staying in the game only because opponent Crown My Ass left Forte on his bench.  Late in the Eagles-49ers matchup, I was ready to put Vernon Davis on the trading block.  But Davis came up with the Horde's only touchdown, which proved just enough for an 86-81 come-from-behind victory.  Next week, the 4-1 Horde engages in its game of cat-and-also-cat against undefeated Anything But Last, run by my former in-law.

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