James Madison is making a push to improve its playoff attendance ahead of Friday’s national quarterfinal here against Northern Iowa.

This past Saturday’s second-round 66-21 win for the second-seeded Dukes over Monmouth brought only 10,881 to Bridgeforth Stadium.

“That’s a typical trend, so we were pretty excited about this weekend’s crowd,” said Mike Carpenter, the school’s assistant athletic director for ticketing, before noting all the of holiday obligations season-ticket holders and fans already have during the month of December.

In regular-season play, JMU averaged a home crowd of 22,144, and past postseason games have brought larger crowds than Saturday did.

This is the sixth straight postseason appearance for the program and the meeting with Monmouth marked the ninth time JMU has hosted a playoff game during that span. Only one of the nine – last year’s first-round matchup with Delaware (7,297) – was less attended.

The high during the current six-year run was achieved during the 2017 national semifinal against South Dakota State (16,528). The average crowd for those nine is 13,511.

“Our student body really makes a big difference in the stadium in the end zone and on the visiting side,” Carpenter said. “That’s where our focus is this week.”

He said student tickets are free and there are various promotions that should encourage students to attend. JMU will giveaway free tuition to one student in attendance for the spring semester on Friday and students can also win a free faculty parking pass for the spring semester.

Carpenter said JMU will hold a sign-making contest for students and that the winner will earn a $100 Chick-fil-A gift card while the runner-up and third-place finisher wins a bookstore gift card.

Carpenter said JMU faculty and staff can attend for $8 and that friends and families of JMU students can buy tickets for $8, too.

Other tickets are available for as little as $15, as pricey as a ticket in the club level or anything in between for this Friday.

“That crowd that comes on playoff weekends is really engaged and really powerful,” Carpenter said. “We thought it was a pretty good number [Saturday] and we’re still going to work on growing that this week. It’s tough in December with our fan base and all the obligations that happen week by week in holiday season, but we’re going to continue to push on that.”

He said he didn’t think fans were saving their money for a possible trip to Frisco, Texas for the national championship game next month should the Dukes advance that far.

“I don’t know if they’re specifically holding out for Frisco,” Carpenter said. “I think a lot of people are planning on Frisco, at this point, which is really exciting to see that. I think it’s just picking one of the three playoff games more so. We’ve heard that more than, ‘I’m holding out just for Frisco.’ So it’s more, ‘I’ve got family obligations. I’ve got travel, this or that,’ so they’re picking one of those three [playoff] dates.

“But this game is shaping up to be an exciting one with the Friday night energy, so we think we’re going to see a better crowd.”