Two 2011 Texas High School State Championship Games Have Outdrawn Every Bowl Game

Bowl fever!

Catch it!

Or don't.

And most of y'all are choosing not to catch it.

So far there have been eight bowl games played. (Don't worry, there are still 27 more). The highest attended of any of these games? The New Orleans Bowl which brought in 42,841. The second highest attended bowl game? Last night's Independence Bowl which announced a crowd of 41,728.

Putting those numbers in perspective, two Texas high school state championship games drew more fans than every bowl game thus far.

Southlake Carroll and Fort Bend Hightower brought in 42,896 for their game on December 17th. That same day Aledo and Manvel bested that number with the fifth largest crowd to ever see a Texas high school football game -- 43,369. So more people watched both of these games in person than any of the eight bowl games.  

Thanks to @sjkz on Twitter for the initial tip. I verified the attendance numbers at the Dallas Morning News' high school sports Twitter feed.

Maybe you're thinking, well, that number's not bad for the Independence Bowl.

Yeah, that was the announced attendance. Look at the actual crowd via a photo from @tarheelfootball. That's the official account of North Carolina football. Along with the photo was this satiric comment. "Rain seems to have kept a few people away."

There my be more people at my CLE on conference realignment tomorrow.

The eight bowls are averaging 31,430 announced attendance thus far. But that's announced attendance, a figure that is probably 50% inflated from the number that are actually there. (And that might be kind). So in reality college football has chosen to end its season with at least twenty games that will struggle to bring in 20,000 people.

What a ridiculous system.

I know what y'all are all thinking the bowls need to spice up attendance. (Aside from, you know, actually mattering).

And I agree completely.

Runaway golf carts.

I can't stop watching this video.

And, by the way, my new favorite part is the fat guy who just falls down on his own as the golf cart passes.

Did he faint?

In the meantime, there are plenty of good seats available for every game but the BCS title game.

Send along the best pictures you can find of the stands and we'll add more photos here. The Beef O'Brady's Bowl only announced 20,072 for that game. I can't even imagine what those photos look like.