re: Tony Petitti: Big Ten wants more games with CFP implications

Petitti is actually the smart one. Attendance wains in the latter part of the season because the vast majority of teams are eliminated by mid-October from anything. Sure, if you are a fan of top tier team you have hope a lot longer into the season than the other 100 plus fanbases.

Sure, you have a handful of rivalry games that will bring the crowds but those are a very small percentage of games. As a commissioner of a league he is looking at all games and not just the elite. For every Mich-Ohio St or Bama-Auburn you have 10 games like South Carolina-Florida or Purdue-Illinois that mean nothing whether you win or lose. Fan apathy is a real thing and could get worse. That’s why playoff expansion is great. Maybe not for the top tier teams who now have to play more games to get where they were already getting but fit gives more fanbases hope which opens the wallets.