BYU football: Five odd questions going into the 2017 season

Question 2: How full will LES get this season?

As mentioned before, ever since going Independent, BYU football has not hosted a lot of home games against big schools.

For example, since 2011, BYU has played Ole Miss, Texas, Utah, Oregon State, TCU, Boise State, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, Virginia, Texas, Houston, Wisconsin, California, Nebraska, Michigan, UCLA, Missouri, Arizona, West Virginia and Michigan State away from Provo.

In that same time, the Cougars have played Washington State, Utah, Boise State, Oregon State, Texas, Georgia Tech, Houston, Virginia, UCLA and Mississippi State at home.

That is 25 big games have been played away from Provo (Utah and Notre Dame twice each and Boise State three times) and only hosted only 11 premier games since 2011 in Provo. That is an average of just under two big games a year.

This season, BYU football will host three big games at home this year. That is the most that the Cougars have hosted since 2009 when they played Florida State, TCU and Utah.

There has been a lot of people complaining that the reason why the attendance is going down is because of the games that are played in Provo. There is not doubt that playing three AAC opponents, Wagner, Boise State and Fresno State are going to lead to empty seats as they did in the 2015 season, however will people show up for Wisconsin, Utah and Boise State? This season we will find out whether or not having more big games will lead to more filled up seats.