The growth of the student section has been a really nice result of the Fleck era. A couple students visited our tailgate (relative of one of our regulars) and when they left early, they said it was because they wanted to get to the stadium in time to avoid having to sit in the second deck. Separating the student section in decks like the rest of the stadium was one of the two big design mistakes of the Bank in my opinion (the other being the undersized band pit).
I realize freshmen get free tix to the first game but in just a couple years the atmosphere has gone from horrible student attendance to the Bank becoming the place to be for students on game days. I love to see that.
I thought 44k attendance was “okay” for a tough sell of a game.