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Top 25 college football teams with highest average home attendance

By Patrick Schmidt

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Attendance was down overall around college football in 2014, but that wasn’t the case in the SEC or at Ohio State who had the highest average attendance.

The Ohio State Buckeyes are the top team in college football after winning the national title, will be the preseason No. 1 this year and can also add a No. 1 to their soaring attendance figures after their 2014 season.

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Urban Meyer’s Buckeyes led the nation with an average home attendance of 106,296, which is actually more than the Horseshoe’s 104,944 seating capacity. They weren’t the only school, however, to have an average home attendance that was greater than their seating capacity as the renovated Kyle Field saw an average attendance of 105,123 flock to see Texas A&M games last year despite their 102,500 capacity.

Joining the Aggies and Buckeyes in the 100,000 club are Michigan, LSU, Penn State and Alabama with Tennessee 246 shy of the exclusive club.

Check out the top 25 programs with the highest average attendance for 2014 below, courtesy of NCAA.org.

1. Ohio State – 106, 296
2. Texas A&M – 105,123
3. Michigan – 104,909
4. LSU – 101,723
5. Penn State – 101,623
6. Alabama – 101,534
7. Tennessee – 99,754
8. Texas – 94,103
9. Georgia – 92,746
10. Nebraska – 91,249
11. Auburn – 87,451
12. Florida – 85,834
13. Oklahoma – 85,162
14. Florida State – 82,211
15. South Carolina – 81,381
16. Notre Dame – 80,795
17. Clemson – 80,494
18. Wisconsin – 79,520
19. UCLA – 76,650
20. Michigan State – 74,681
21. USC – 73,272
22. Iowa – 67,512
23. Arkansas – 66,521
24. Missouri – 65,285
25. Washington – 64,508

The SEC leads the way with 11 of their 14 member schools in the top 25, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Kentucky finished 26th, 28th and 30th, respectively, and was the only conference to see a four-figure increase in home attendance.

They led in total attendance with a conference record 7,769,362 last year for an average of 77,694, 2,020 higher than the previous year.

The only other conference to see an increase in attendance last year was the ACC with an increase of 309 per game.

Overall, attendance was down across the FBS with 1,002 fewer fans on average to coincide with decreased attendance at neutral-site and bowl games.

This can be for a number of reasons, but the rising cost of attending games and the great product viewers get by watching the games in the comfort of their homes on their big screen high-definition tv’s while also watching the other games on at the same time has to play a large part in decreased attendance numbers.

Next: Top 15 Non-Conference Games for 2015

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