College football attendance lowest since 1981. Big Ten only conference to increase in 2021.
- Thread starter YouSayPotato
- Start date
Thanks for posting.It is interesting that the BIG averaged about 65,000 fans per game .Of course if you take OSU,PSU and Michigan out of the mix,the average would fall to around 55,000.
True, and the B1G and SEC were virtually unchanged in attendance. However, the ACC plummeted - down 12%, lowest in 30 years – and the Pac-12 was down 5%, lowest ever. Add to that the Big XII is dead meat when OU and UT leave and the Big Ten is the going to be in very good shape for the next round of media rights haggling.
Acc sucked this year but 12% seems problematic. Don’t understand pac-12 either.
Traditional powers in both the ACC (Clemson, Virginia Tech, FSU) and the PAC-12 (USC, Stanford, Oregon, Washington) were down, so they draw less both at home and on the road. Any of those schools have been good road draws, with FSU, Clemson, USC and UO serving as true needle movers. When none of them are very good, interest wanes and ticket demand falls. Add to that ND’s good but not great year and you see why the ACC numbers fell.
In the BiG, Northwestern, Illinois, Indinia, Rutgers and Maryland have never had good attendance, so they pull everyone down. Illinois has drawn well when they’ve been good, so we’ll see where they go. The others have no real fan support at all, which is why you see so many visiting fans at places like Ryan Field and The Mausoleum (if you’ve ever been there for the every other year ritual of OSU bringing 25k+ while the IU fans cower in fear, it’s a sight to behold . . . Stupid Hillbillies meet Classless Morons).
In the BiG, Northwestern, Illinois, Indinia, Rutgers and Maryland have never had good attendance, so they pull everyone down. Illinois has drawn well when they’ve been good, so we’ll see where they go. The others have no real fan support at all, which is why you see so many visiting fans at places like Ryan Field and The Mausoleum (if you’ve ever been there for the every other year ritual of OSU bringing 25k+ while the IU fans cower in fear, it’s a sight to behold . . . Stupid Hillbillies meet Classless Morons).
Well, that's true for every conference. If you took Clemson, FSU and Va Tech out of the mix, the ACC would probably average 30,000. Interestingly, one of the biggest declines was Miami. They went from a 2018 average of 61,469 to a 43,698 average in 2021, a 29% drop.
| 2021 | 43,698 | 305,885 |
| 2020 | 10,398 | 51,991 |
| 2019 | 52,829 | 316,971 |
| 2018 | 61,469 | 368,814 |
