Saturday Blitz
Fansided

The best and worst of college football’s 2022 attendance trends

By John Scimeca

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN - OCTOBER 26: General view of fans during a college football game between the Michigan Wolverines and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Michigan Stadium on October 26, 2019 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Photo by Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images)
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN - OCTOBER 26: General view of fans during a college football game between the Michigan Wolverines and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Michigan Stadium on October 26, 2019 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Photo by Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 7
Next

College football attendance figures from the 2022 season indicate that fans are continuing to pack the bleachers for their favorite teams and that many schools have rebounded nicely from reduced capacity crowds two years ago.

The four most powerful conferences in NCAA football posted attendance gains from the previous year by at least +3%, including a +14% increase in attendance in ACC home football games. Each of these four leagues (the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, and ACC) had posted their largest percentage increases in at least five years, according to the website D1 Ticker.

After the 2022 season, Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State continue to lead college football programs in terms of home attendance.

Even with the proliferation of broadcasted games, media rights deals, and TV networks that help fans stream live or recorded contests, fans continue to be drawn to college football games for the experience of game day. Maybe it’s the tailgating or the desire to share an experience that your friends post about on social media, but one thing remains clear: there are still rear ends in the seats when it’s kickoff time for Division I college football.

Of course, as with anything in college football, there are big-time programs and many smaller schools that operate at a mere fraction of that level. For the average numbers between 2017 – 2021, five schools have drawn more than 100,000 fans per home game — Alabama, Texas A&M, Penn State, Ohio State, and Michigan. 36 schools, on the other hand, drew under 25,000 fans per contest during that same period.

While LSU is the nation’s top SEC team in terms of home fans from last year, the two-time defending national champions, Georgia, ranks No. 9 on the 2022 list with an average of 92,746 home fans.

The so-called “power conference vs. Group of 5” gap has a lot of ways of manifesting itself, and it is clearly evident when looking at the attendance numbers.

What are the best and worst trends of college football attendance from last season?

Home/College Football News