The Univ. of South Carolina is "hoping for the best" when it comes to attendance for Saturday’s makeup home football game against Akron, but administrators "don’t know exactly what that will look like in terms of fans in seats at Williams-Brice Stadium," according to Josh Kendall of the Columbia STATE. South Carolina is playing Akron as a "makeup for the scheduled Sept. 15 game against Marshall, which was canceled due to Hurricane Florence," while Akron had a game against Nebraska canceled due to weather. South Carolina "didn’t finalize the new game until early in November, giving fans little time to plan for what otherwise would have been a football-free weekend." South Carolina Senior Associate AD/Marketing & Branding and CMO Eric Nichols said, "We have never done this before this late in the season, but we have been pleased with the ticket sales so far." Nichols said that the school has "sold almost 30,000 tickets" as of yesterday. Kendall notes South Carolina’s "lowest announced home attendance this season" was Nov. 17 against Chattanooga, when the "official attendance was 72,832." Nichols: "We are leaning on some community partners to help in some upper deck seating to give the biggest home advantage that they can have." He added that tickets will be "given to military organizations, school programs and athletic department sponsors" (Columbia STATE, 11/27).
