Triple B mentioned it earlier, but youth sports hurts our attendance for noon games. Our program is only 20 years old. A majority of our fan base has young kids. Chances are that if you are a college sports fan, your kids are involved in youth sports. You can't blame a parent for choosing their kid's game over a Bulls game. I texted 6 of my buddies to see if they were going to the game Saturday, and they all had the same response: kids have games. The only reason I went with the family is because my kids games were cancelled due to field conditions. If the games were still on, I would have been at their games and missed homecoming.
You also have to take into account that people can now follow both....watch your kids game in person and follow the Bulls game on a smart phone. It makes the decision that much easier.
People also forget that USF lost a ton of casual fans after a demotion to the AAC. It sucks to admit, but it's true. In the Big East, the locals felt as if USF was in the big leagues. USF pushed the BCS inclusion in everything they printed. People were excited that USF had joined the league that Miami and Va Tech had just exited. I think we lost a lot of those casual fans that would show up for a USF vs. Cuse, Ville, WVU. ECU and the AAC doesn't have that same draw.
Finally, I think the hurricane did stop some travel of people from the east coast as well.
It was a perfect storm of suck and the students didn't make up for it. Some of them didn't want to sit in the heat, some probably have Saturday jobs, and some may have gone home to be with family during the storm.
All we can do is move on and try to improve. Go Bulls!