RI went 3-9 last year in what we used to call 1AA and is a nobody in football with no traveling fans. Did you mean for that to be a "2" instead of a "3"?
Home openers are always extremely well attended regardless of opponent. You can take my word for it or look up the historical numbers. I'm right, though.
The recipe is there for a massive attendance year IF we come out OK on kickoff times and don't get hammered by weather. Remember, we have little control over kick time when TV is involved. Also, I expect all of our games except RI to be televised, for sure. We're CUSA's marquee team. FS1 and CBSSports are going to fight over broadcasting our games. We may draw a Thursday night FS1 spot. Not a big hindrance to attendance if it's not late in the year. Also, all of our CUSA home games are against somewhat attractive teams this year.
Rhode Island: Home opener=great attendance
OU: Revenge, recognized opponent, rival, early in the season=probably the best attended game since VT came to Huntington
MTSU: good conference opponent, homecoming, revenge=great attendance
FAU: good conference opponent=potentially good attendance if the time slot and weather cooperate
Rice: see FAU
Western Kentucky: Probably looking at a crowd similar to the ECU crowd from last year, but it could improve with a 3:30 kick/a shot of nice weather/us playing for what we all want to be playing for
We
could realistically crack 30k for any of the first 5 games. It all depends on if we get 1-3 really well attended games of 30+++ and then don't get whacked with 24k or less at all.