I've said it before, but the days the schedule ended up being played on and the opponents make a big difference. The Georgetown and Cincy games were our only two conference games on a Saturday or Friday while school was in session and the atmosphere was great. Like it or not, students aren't going to come out on the weekdays in huge numbers unless it is a big matchup. The lack of strength in the Big East paired with us facing most of the top of the league on the road just brings this more to light.
As a personal note, I have night classes and am not able to make it to the games during the week. Night classes are less prevalent for undergrads, but that takes out some of the students. Also those with tests (I'm not making a judgement one way or another, just that's a reason) are less likely to go to the games. If I had a big accounting test the next day, I'd most likely not go to the game.
People are making this sound like it is unique to MU, which based on that Duke article, it is not. Just part of college athletics. We could make the student section 30% of what it is, and it would be filled most games, but then we could complain about the alums who aren't showing up to games and making it look sparse. Not blaming alums for anything, but it is just the nature of the beast.
