​Nov. 4—Isaiah Perez recognizes that Roos Field is not a huge football stadium, especially compared to some of the FBS sites he’s played at over his time at Eastern Washington.”I think for the most part everybody on the team isn’t looking in the stands,” Perez, who has three games left in his college playing career, said this week. “I know my wife and daughters are in the stands, and that’s all that matters to me.”Still, a cursory scan of the crowds at the Eagles’ home venue the last couple of games — against Montana and Montana State, two schools with winning records and within driving distance of Cheney — painted a less-than-red picture: seats filled with maroon-clad Grizzlies fans and, two weeks earlier, swaths of Bobcats gold and blue.Eastern Washington will play its next two games on the road, starting Saturday at Idaho and then the following week at Utah Tech, before playing its final home game of the 2026 season against Portland State.It’s a string that isn’t nearly as meaningful as the Eagles hoped, but a 2-7 overall record and 1-5 Big Sky record cannot be improved upon enough for Eastern to posture for a postseason bid.That record hasn’t done much for Eastern’s crowds this season, either.But then, it’s been a while since the Eagles had anything close to a stadium-full of fans.Eastern’s last crowd of more than 8,000 fans came two seasons ago, the last time it hosted Montana, on Sept. 28, 2024. It was Eastern’s first Big Sky game and second home contest of the season.Since then, attendance has steadily declined. The Eagles drew crowds of 7,419 (against UC Davis), 6,258 (Montana State) and 4,854 (Idaho State) the rest of the 2024 season. In 2025, the Eagles hosted five home games, averaged 5,206 per game and peaked at an announced crowd of 6,071 against Idaho.This season, the largest crowd was the one on Sept. 26 against Cal Poly (5,320), almost the same as the attendance figure against Montana State (5,318) and slightly more than last weekend’s crowd of 4,900 against Montana. Across five games, average attendance is 4,983.This season, Eastern’s attendance ranks fifth lowest in the 13-team Big Sky. The four teams below them, like Eastern, have a losing record this season.It’s a far cry from the Roos Field crowds of the 2010s, when on 21 occasions were announced to be at least 10,000.There has been much conversation around college football attendance this season, with photos of stadiums at UCLA, Texas Tech, Penn State and Maryland showing half-empty stadiums at venues normally associated with full crowds.At the FBS level, 70 of the 138 teams have reported lower attendance figures this year as compared to last year, according to D1.ticker, which tracks such data. That includes the University of Washington, which is down 4.9% this season compared to last, and Washington State, which is down 0.1%.Washington is 5-3 overall this year — including a 48-16 victory over Eastern and a 24-10 victory over Washington State. The Cougars are 1-8 ove