Empty seats are a "modern college football reality," but there are five teams having very successful seasons that are "still trying everything they can to get butts in seats" this year, according to Pat Forde of YAHOO SPORTS. Oklahoma State is 10-0 and ranked 4th in the major media polls, but there have been "zero sellouts to date" at the 60,218-seat Boone Pickens Stadium. OSU is averaging 57,352 per home game, but that is after the school "implemented a buy-one, get-one-free offer for marquee home games against TCU on Nov. 7 and Baylor on Saturday." When an undefeated team "goes BOGO to pack the house against top-10 competition, that's an eye opener." Meanwhile, fellow unbeaten Iowa has just one sellout in six games at Kinnick Stadium (capacity 70,585) -- last week's rivalry game against Minnesota. Part of the average attendance sitting at 63,179 "can be traced to a lackluster home schedule." Tickets "are still available" for this Saturday's home finale against Purdue, and AD Gary Barta "emailed Iowa fans Sunday urging them to buy tickets and show up for that game." North Carolina, which sports a surprising 9-1 record, has no sellouts at the 63,000-seat capacity Kenan Memorial Stadium, and "only the last two home games came close -- if you believe the athletic department figures." After some "pleading, cajoling and bullying" from coach Tom Herman, Houston fans "finally packed 40,000-seat TDECU Stadium" for last week's game against Memphis. UH, which remains undefeated, drew an "above-capacity crowd of 42,159 after only coming within 5,000 of capacity once in the previous five home games." Meanwhile, 9-1 Florida has "only failed to top their listed capacity of 88,548 once this year" -- an early-season game against ECU. However, fans have not been "punctual," as there were "plenty of empty seats" at the noon start of the Nov. 7 game against Vanderbilt (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 11/17).
