College Football Team Draws Embarrassing Crowd for Saturday Afternoon Game

Home openers hold significant importance, particularly for college football teams.

They present an excellent chance for teams to perform in front of their home fans for the first time in a season, displaying their skills against their first scheduled opponent. It's also an exhilarating experience for supporters eager to demonstrate their enthusiasm for their beloved team.

However, outcomes may not always align with expectations, even when the team is playing their home opener against a renowned military school.

The Florida Atlantic University Owls, simply abbreviated as FAU, are playing their sophomore season as a member of the American Athletic Conference. They were previously in Conference USA (CUSA), playing there for 10 seasons before making the big move after the 2022 campaign.

FAU was off to an optimistic start to the 2024 season, despite losing their first game to Big Ten opponent Michigan State. While the offense required a need for improvement, their defense showcased lots of promise after limiting the Spartans to 16 points.

On Saturday afternoon, the Owls prepared for their second game against the Army Black Knights. For a game that was being broadcast on CBS Sports Network on top of featuring a well-known military school, it would be expected for fans to make their way to Howard Schnellenberger Field to provide significant turnout for an important home opener.

Regrettably, this was the reality for a stadium with a capacity of over 30,000 seats. A story posted on FAU's Barstool Instagram account revealed that the stands were sparsely populated, clearly showing both the home viewers and those present in person the disappointing level of attendance.

The end result of the game was as disappointing as the overall turnout. The Owls lost 24-7, falling to 0-2 on the season as the confidence they had after Michigan State has been brought back down to earth while the Black Knights shine with a 2-0 start to begin their first year as a member of the AAC.

Attendance was officially revealed to be 21,810, meaning that at least two-thirds of the stadium were filled. But taking into account that those involved the number of ticket sales and not the actual turnout for the game, there is a lot of work for the Owls to do to garner more hype from the fans for the upcoming games.

FAU will hope to rebound with a rivalry matchup against the Florida International University Panthers on Sept. 14 at 6 p.m. ET.

As for Army, they will look to go 3-0 when they host Rice on Sept. 14 at noon p.m. ET.

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