Top 25 programs in terms of stadium capacity
(school — number of available seats)
- Michigan — 107,601
- Penn St. — 106,572
- Ohio St. — 102,780
- Texas A&M — 102,733
- Tennessee — 102,455
- LSU — 102,321
- Alabama — 101,821
- Texas — 95,594
- Georgia — 92,746
- UCLA — 90,888
- Florida — 88,548
- Auburn — 87,451
- Oklahoma — 86,112
- Nebraska — 85,548
- Clemson — 81,500
- Notre Dame — 80,795
- Wisconsin — 80,321
- South Carolina — 80,250
- Florida St. — 79,560
- Southern California — 77,500
- Arkansas — 76,000
- Michigan St. — 75,005
- UAB — 71,594
- Iowa — 70,585
- San Diego St. — 70,561
According to the NCAA’s list of stadiums’ capacities
There are a few schools that have different venue options to promote social distancing in a large city — assuming that the town’s NFL team would be willing to put up with the headache of sanitizing a home stadium after a Saturday college game.
For example, would the Washington Huskies be able to play in the Seahawks’ CenturyLink Field (capacity of nearly 69,000)? How about the Tulane Green Wave in the Saints’ Mercedez-Benz Superdome or the Houston Cougars in the Texans’ NRG Stadium, both of which seat more than 72,000?
Some schools may opt to bring in fans at just a quarter of capacity, while some schools may not have the option to bring in fans at all at their state’s governor’s behest — as is the case with Rutgers football for this fall.
In terms of conferences, the SEC claims an impressive seven of the 12 largest college football stadiums in the country. The highest Group of Five team is UAB, who play in Birmingham’s Legion Field, though ironically, the Blazers are scheduled to move to a smaller, new 45,000-seat stadium in 2021.