Last year the 2011 FCS Championship between Eastern Washington and Delaware in Frisco, Texas, just north of Dallas, drew a paltry crowd of 13,027. Considering each school's distance from North Texas, that's easy to understand. However, this season's match-up between Sam Houston State (just 200 miles away in Huntsville) and North Dakota State is a sellout, and could have broken the NCAA FCS Championship attendance record if not for the venue.
According to a piece by the Sports Exchange, the record for a NCAA I-A (now FCS) title game crowd is 32,106, when Montana beat Marshall 22-20 in Huntington, West Virginia in 1995. Considering that Pizza Hut Park's 23,000 seats are already sold out and not meeting the large demand of both fan bases, it's likely that the Bison and Bearkats could've set a new record in a different facility.
Certainly Sam Houston State's proximity helps interest in the game, but it's not just the Bearkats: Each team was allotted 4,000 tickets and both sold through. North Dakota State (roughly 1,000 miles from Frisco in Fargo, North Dakota) is driving up demand as well, according to the Marshall (Minnesota) Independent.
The Hunstville Item is reporting that 500 standing room tickets were released by Pizza Hut Park on Tuesday, which have already sold out.
For more on the 2012 FCS Championship, visit SB Nation's college football page.