In Reply to: Re: Disagree posted by SehornBlew on December 26, 2024 at 11:12:11
While it’s true that we have a strong fan base that’s aging, I think you give too little credit to what UCLA represents and it’s location. I know tons of younger UCLA fans. At my place of work numbers are pretty split between SUC and UCLA. Certainly there’s not the fervor of Dodger or Laker fans but there is a following. Granted I work in education and allegiance to one’s university is something we find important. Still, whenever I come across articles that rank viewership for college sports UCLA is routinely in top 30ish programs in the country, sometimes higher depending how the programs are doing. You have to remember there are around 23 million people in SoCal, most of these small college towns have less than a million people. Heck half of the states have less than 5 million people total. Some a lot less than that.
UCLA is a big brand routinely ranked as the number #1 state university in the country. I think you’re far too pessimistic. Should we have more of a following? Yes. But are we the embarrassment of college sports? No not quite.
Attached is an article I quickly googled. I have no idea about the source but it’s what came up. Like I said, I have come across similar articles in the past from news sources I routinely read like SI, CBS, or the Times.