I assume you mean that the only logical reason is that they were wrecked by the scanner system being down, and the NCAA probably has some rule that says you can't estimate attendance from pictures during the game. So their only choice was to use the number of tickets that actually scanned correctly.
If the real number was 17K, and my guess is that it was that high at least, judging from how many rotations the wave made around the stadium, then I'm satisfied with that number for now. It was a cupcake game against an FCS team, people will show up for the bigger games. And as our success grows, average attendance will rise, even for games against BSC teams.