Sometimes, conventional wisdom is not all that wise.

After all, those preaching gloom and doom will say that for a Division II program to increase attendance, it must not be encumbered by a nearby professional team. Proximate Division I-A programs are equally problematic. Media coverage might help sell tickets, but larger papers never give meaningful attention to non-Division I programs.

But three Division II institutions disregarded the truisms in 2005 and significantly increased football attendance through ingenuity, investment and a good understanding of how the public regards "entertainment."

Without a doubt, the won-lost records favored the University of Indianapolis, Washburn University of Topeka and West Texas A&M University this fall. All three had winning marks, and Washburn and West Texas A&M reached the Division II playoffs.

But winning alone cannot explain how West Texas A&M, a former Division I institution, set an all-time single-game attendance mark. Nor can it account for how Washburn -- located squarely between the University of Kansas and Kansas State University -- has been able to increase total attendance each of the last four years. Winning doesn't reveal how Indianapolis was able to increase its season-opening crowd from 2,500 to 4,729 against a mid-range opponent from the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

The broader explanation is that the programs complemented good or great won-lost years by creating intimate, community-friendly environments.

That is the formula that Washburn has been using for years now. Never mind that the Jayhawks, the Wildcats and the Kansas City Chiefs all are situated less than 80 miles away. Washburn, said Athletics Director Loren Ferre, has chosen to create its own following.

"When I first took the job, we said let's play the opposite of when they play, set our game times differently and things like that," he said. "And we just found that it didn't make a big difference. So we just set our game times when we wanted. We announce over the PA how KU and K-State games are going. We don't try to hide from it. They both have great programs, and they have their own following. We just believe we have to create our own niche."

That, of course, is the hard part.

West Texas A&M has been struggling to achieve a publicly accepted non-Division I identity since it reclassified in 1986. "Because we were Division I," said Athletics Director Ed Harris, "I've always had a group of fans who said, 'You'll never be able to sell a Division II program here because we're used to Division I.' Well, we just put more people in our stadium than Division I ever put in here because we've got a good product. And I do believe that people will support a good product."

The big game was a 52-51 overtime victory over Eastern New Mexico University that was as thrilling off the field as it was on.

The seeds for success were sown in the off-season with the hire of new coach Don Carthel, who immediately put an improved team on the field.

"We got this thing going in a hurry, and the crowds just built, game after game," Harris said. By their third home game against Texas A&M University-Kingsville, the Buffaloes drew a crowd of 14,095.

"And then homecoming two weeks later couldn't have been better," he said. With nearby Eastern New Mexico coming to town for the traditional "Wagon Wheel" game, Harris set out to break the attendance record.

"Amarillo National Bank called about midweek of homecoming week and said, 'How many tickets can we buy?' and I said, 'How many can you afford?' So I gave them a discount price, and they bought 8,000 tickets. They put them through all of their branches in Amarillo on Wednesday, and I believe by 3:30, all 8,000 were gone."

Not only did the fans take the tickets, they showed up for the game. "And they created additional buzz from there," Harris said. "We drew well for our last two home games and averaged more than 14,000 per game" -- a 232 percent increase over 2004.

The long-term hope is that fans will appreciate the family-friendly experience and return in the future, even when they are asked to pay the reasonable face value for tickets ($15 tops, down to $3 for kids).

That same experience is what Washburn has been selling for years now. The approach there has been to nurture what traditions existed, to build new ones and -- above all -- to create entertainment value for those who attend the games.

The school refurbished its stadium, not to add seats but rather to make the experience better for the fans. Suites were constructed in the press box, but the greater public appeal came from features such as the addition of extensive chairback seating, improved restrooms, revamped concession areas and better stadium entrances.

"Things like that are important," Ferre said. "They show a commitment to the program and that you care about what's going on. People buy into that and want to come and support you."

If they do, Washburn makes certain that they experience an event is as much about family as it is about football.

"Before the game, graduate assistant coaches most often will conduct clinics for kids from the Topeka area," Ferre said. "After the game, our players gather and the coaches talk to them. And all the parents and kids come down, and once the team breaks huddle, they go and mingle with everybody."

As for the game itself, Washburn takes a laissez-faire approach with the kids who are on hand.

"We have a bowl, and the north end has a hill. Long before I came here -- I guess as long as the stadium has been in existence -- kids have come and slid down that hill," he said.

"You talk about being kid-friendly...you come to one of our games, and you'll see that all the time. We have people who are long-time supporters, and they will remember when they were kids sliding down the hill. It's just a tradition. It allows parents to keep an eye on the kids and the kids to have a great time."

If the kids get tired of the hill, they can always play football while the real game transpires.

"A track goes around our field, and on the north end, sometimes the kids will play a football game on that track. We don't even try to control it. We supervise it to make sure they don't get on the real field or that they don't hurt each other, but we don't try to stop it."

While it might have elements of a three-ring circus, it has worked for Washburn, where all of the games begin at 1 p.m. Saturdays, whether it is late August or late November.

Involving the school

The University of Indianapolis, however, regarded start times differently when it installed lights this year. The result: Attendance for the first three games averaged 3,739, up 50 percent from 2004.

Athletics Director Sue Willey said the lights were added to accommodate soccer, but they were a boon for football.

"Our best-attended game was the very first one, and that was because it was the very first week of Welcome Week. It was really exciting, and obviously that very first weekend before classes start kids typically don't return home for the weekend.

"The festivities actually started on Wednesday. Before the game, there was tailgating for everyone -- a cookout where all the students ate outside like a tailgate rather than eating in the dining hall." Afterward, the school hosted a campus-wide dance.

Families responded positively to the change.

"They have lots to do Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon," she said, "but to come to a Saturday evening game at 6, that was a good time."

The net result: Per-game attendance for 2005 was up more than 20 percent, from 2,500 to 3,085.

Of course, not every Division II football program increased its attendance in 2005, let alone to the degree that Indianapolis, Washburn and West Texas A&M did. But those successes do help prove that people will attend Division II events, and that the key to that success most often is community involvement -- whether the "community" is defined as the school itself or the surrounding city.

To achieve its success, West Texas A&M successfully made nearby Amarillo part of its community, something it had not been able to achieve since its old Division I days.

"The experience made us part of the suburbs," Harris said. "Before, the attitude was, 'Do I really want to get in the car and drive 11 miles?' Now the attitude is, 'No problem.'"

As for the tickets that were bought cheap and given away, Harris has no regrets. "The average person paid $3 to $3.50 a ticket, which for Division II is not bad at all. We made budget this year."

He acknowledges those who say that discounting tickets is a risky practice because fans won't return when they are asked to pay full price in the future. And yet, he believed the program was caught in a chicken-and-egg cycle where people could not know what they were missing until they saw the product first-hand.

The early results are promising. All chairback seats sold out for the playoff game. For next year, Harris said there is now more demand to add chairback seats so that people can buy them early. "So what I think we've done with these large buys is create interest that will turn into more pre-buys," he said.

Do these success stories translate into better local publicity? In Indianapolis' case, no. In the case of West Texas A&M, it may be too early to tell. But Washburn has reaped the benefits.

Games and coaches' shows are broadcast on WIBW, a powerful AM station that reaches into six states. And while the Topeka Capital-Journal provides ample coverage for Kansas and Kansas State, it also has a beat writer assigned strictly to Washburn. Most larger papers don't respond to requests for such coverage, but Washburn proves that such quests are not hopeless.

And all three cases demonstrate that attendance progress is possible in Division II without competing directly against Division I.

"Division II football is different from Division I," Ferre said. "We have outstanding athletes in Division II, and I think people see a great brand of football. We have a lot of people who come for the first time to one of our games and become season ticket holders the next year."

He cited a senior-citizen caller to WIBW who went to his first Washburn game in years on an idle week for Kansas State. He paid $4 for his ticket, which left him marveling at the value and even suggesting that the school raise its ticket prices.

Ferre accepted the compliment but resisted the advice.

"When we set our ticket prices, we try to make it a family value so that people can bring their kids and it doesn't break them," he said. "We value our program and ticket sales are important to us, but we want people here and watching us."

If that isn't conventional wisdom, perhaps it should be.

Indianapolis

The University of Indianapolis added lights and promoted aggressively within the institution to achieve significant attendance gains in the first three games of the 2005 season:

Total

2004 -- Attend.

9/4 Michigan Tech -- 2,500

9/18 Ferris State -- 3,000

9/25 Wayne State -- 2,000

10/9 Findlay -- 3,000

10/30 Saint Joseph's -- 2,500

11/5 Ashland -- 2,000

Total (6 games) -- 15,000

Average -- 2,500

-- Total

2005 -- Attend.

8/27 Hillsdale -- 4,729

9/10 Grand Valley -- 3,118

10/1 Saginaw Valley -- 3,370

10/15 Gannon -- 1,750

10/22 Mercyhurst -- 2,456

Total (5 games) -- 15,423

Average -- 3,085

Washburn

Besides improving its won-lost record, Washburn University of Topeka added amenities to its stadium while building on a number of previously established traditions.

-- Total

Year -- Attend. (Avg.)

2002 -- 17,683 (3,537)

2003 -- 20,479 (3,413)

2004 -- 29,361 (4,894)

2005 -- 35,751 (5,959)

West Texas A&M

West Texas A&M University capitalized on its best on-the-field showing in years by working with local business partners to make tickets available throughout Amarillo. The result was an all-time record crowd for the program, which was classified in Division I until 1986.

2004

9/11 Central Oklahoma -- 10,289

10/2 Midwestern State -- 4,067

10/16 Abilene Christian -- 3,130

10/30 Tarleton State -- 2,068

11/06 Texas A&M- Commerce -- 1,495

Total (5 games) -- 21,049

Average -- 4,210

2005

9/3 East Central -- 7,211

9/17 Southwestern Okla. -- 8,599

9/24 Texas A&M- Kingsville -- 14,095

10/8 Eastern New Mexico -- 22,993

10/22 Angelo State -- 17,127

Total (5 games) -- 70,025

Average -- 14,005