You can crunch numbers, you can juggle numbers and you can spin numbers. You can do anything you want with numbers.

In that regard, don’t believe everything you read each January when the NCAA releases its college football attendance figures for the previous season.

Here, for example, is the lead paragraph from the NCAA report on 2002 football attendance:

“The 12th man grew larger last year because of the 12th game. With the Division I-A fan base leading the way, NCAA college football attracted more than 44 million spectators in 2002, the highest total in history and an improvement of more than four million from last year.”

Was it really 44 million? Perhaps.

Then again, most college football attendance figures might not be as skewed as the ones issued by Kansas University.

During the season, because Memorial Stadium does not have turnstiles, KU officials estimate game-by-game attendance, then submit those figures to the NCAA media relations department after the season.

The number Kansas submitted after the 2002 season, based on estimates, came out to 36,083 fans per game. In the Big 12 Conference, that number ranked 11th, ahead of only Baylor’s figure of 28,018.

Only 25,408 paid

Yet, in the final accounting, Kansas issued an average of just 32,563 tickets per game and of that number only 25,408 paid to get in. Under NCAA standards, that is.

Susan Wachter, the KU athletic department’s chief financial officer, submitted the school’s actual attendance figures to the NCAA membership services office in mid-February as required by the governing body’s regulations.

The NCAA uses real football attendance as a criteria for establishing a school’s classification. It uses the non-audited numbers strictly for tub-thumping purposes.

“Sometimes,” said Jim Wright of the NCAA statistics department, “those numbers can be wildly different. We tell schools we want your best numbers, regardless of how you got them. Then we use them as a positive publicity option.”

Kansas’ best attendance figure of 36,083 is “wildly different” than its actual paid attendance of 25,408. In fact, it’s a difference of 10,675 (or 29.5 percent).

Why the steep decline? Mostly because, according to Wachter, of the Family Zone promotion. Kansas offered season tickets in the north bowl for two adults and two children for just $100, limiting the bargain package to the first 1,000 buyers.

Highest in 30 years

KU sold the quota of Family Zone tickets and counted them as 4,000 season tickets — one reason the school was able to claim before the 2002 season it had sold 26,394 season tickets, the highest number in 30 years.

However, the NCAA didn’t allow KU to use that math.

“We had to count the Family Zone as one ticket sold,” Wachter said.

Other non-revenue attendees at KU games included recruits, members of high school bands at Band Day, KU bandsmen, service and concession personnel, media, etc.

Still, for now and evermore, the NCAA will list KU’s 2002 average football attendance as 36,083. Kansas, incidentally, ranked 59th in Division I-A, just behind Oregon State (36,436) and just ahead of Utah (35,429).

Michigan led the nation with an average of 110,576, or about three times KU’s figure. Texas A&M led the Big 12 Conference at 80,198 with Texas a close second at 79,053. The other Big 12 schools and their average 2002 crowd were Nebraska, 77,802; Oklahoma, 75,104; Missouri, 52,723; Colorado, 49,219; Kansas State, 48,082; Iowa State, 43,961; Oklahoma State, 43,238; and Texas Tech, 43,126.

The other 11 schools had to submit paid attendance numbers to the NCAA, too, but the NCAA declined to report them to the Journal-World.

“We don’t publish them,” said Steve Mallonee of the NCAA membership services department. “I’ve never given them out.”

No more actual paid

Mallonee noted that 2003 will be the last year member schools will be required to submit actual paid attendance numbers.

“Starting in 2004, the numbers we use for classification will be based on turnstile count only,” Mallonee said.

Except at Kansas, of course. With no turnstiles at its stadium, Kansas will be able to estimate its crowds with impunity.

According to Wachter, Kansas generated about $3 million in revenue from its home football ticket sales last season. At the same time, schools like Texas A&M, Texas, Nebraska and Oklahoma generated about 2 1/2 times as much. That’s crucial because, under Big 12 rules, schools are allowed to keep all the ticket revenue from conference home games.

That’s a change from the old Big Eight Conference rules. In the Big Eight, which existed from 1960 to 1995, schools split the gate in all league games.