Football - terrible, band good.
I attended RIce from 1969-72. Man, we even cheered first downs. A favorite chant we yelled with gusto after a fumble, interception, missed extra point, failed fourth down and similar FUBAR type plays, which occurred all too often, was this: "oooooooOOOOH SHIT! GOD DAMN!" Lots of students left at half time, which was usually the high point of a Rice football game because the band was so fucking hilarious. At halftime of a Rice-Houston game in the early 70s, the PA guy announced, as the band tried to form the outline of the Astrodome, "The Marching Owl Band salutes Judge Roy Hofheinz and the Houston Astrodome, the WORLD'S SMALLEST INDOOR FOOTBALL STADIUM!" at which point Hofheinz himself, whose box was nearby, stormed into the PA booth and yanked the mic and cord out of the wall and chased the PA guy out. The MOB carried on sans narration.
Empty seats are nothing new. Rice Stadium was filled for only two games in the three years I was a student there: Texas in 1970 (LBJ was there, along with 55,000 Texas students and fans) and LSU in one or two of those years. I remember seeing Rice torch the VMI Keydets 55-0. We had some memorable wins over Aggie, one in particular I recall in Aggieland in which Rice was trailing at the half, did not make a first down in the second half and somehow won the game. The Rice OWl mascot dude had a sign pasted to his ass, covered by his tail feathers. He would strut from section to section, waving at the fans, then would bend over, flip up his tail and show the sign, which read, in block print same font as Aggie helmets, "EATME." The guys in khaki pelted him with cups and ice, just did not understand the sporting humor.
Great link to Rice band adventures: https://www.texastribune.org/2016/09/19/five-other-times-rices-marching-band-made-people-m/
Direct quote from the link: During a 1973 game against Texas A&M, Rice’s marching band made fun of several Aggie traditions. The band marched out to the field in a military-style goose-step and turned the Aggie War Hymn into "March of the Wooden Soldiers.” The band also made fun of Texas A&M’s school mascot, the dog Reveille, by forming a fire hydrant. An angry group of Texas A&M students gathered outside Rice’s stadium, and the band eventually had to be transported out via food service trucks. The performance has since been dubbed “The Halftime of Infamy.”
In fairness to the Owls athletics of that era, in 1971 (70? 72?) Rice was #1 in the SWC in every sport but football. So, we had that going for us for one year anyway.