I don’t know how accurate this website is but here is the ranking.

https://www.d1ticker.com/2022-fbs-attendance-trends/

# School 2022 Current Average
1 Michigan 110,246
2 Penn State 107,379
3 Ohio State 104,663
4 LSU 100,596
5 Tennessee 100,532
6 Texas 100,242
7 Alabama 98,981
8 Texas A&M 97,213
9 Georgia 92,746
10 Florida 87,180
11 Nebraska 86,637
12 Auburn 85,203
13 Oklahoma 83,835
14 Clemson 80,694
15 Notre Dame 76,193
16 South Carolina 75,785
17 Wisconsin 74,159
18 Arkansas 73,155
19 Iowa 69,250
20 Michigan State 69,047
21 Florida State 67,254
22 USC 64,487
23 Virginia Tech 64,356
24 Washington 62,933
25 Ole Miss 62,575
26 Kentucky 60,289
27 BYU 59,674
28 Iowa State 57,344
29 Purdue 57,129
30 Texas Tech 56,870
31 NC State 55,924
32 Miami (FL) 54,964
33 Oregon 54,950
34 Oklahoma State 54,735
35 Pittsburgh 54,710
36 Missouri 54,525
37 Mississippi State 53,822
38 Utah 52,057
39 Kansas State 51,165
40 Rutgers 50,756
41 North Carolina 47,933
42 West Virginia 47,658
43 Indiana 46,906
44 TCU 46,562
45 Baylor 45,463
46 Minnesota 45,019
47 Arizona 44,209
48 Arizona State 43,081
49 Kansas 43,076
50 Illinois 43,048
51 Colorado 42,847
52 Louisville 41,692
53 UCLA 41,593
54 UCF 41,542
55 Syracuse 40,828
56 Virginia 40,681
57 ECU 39,649
58 Fresno State 39,067
59 California 38,596
60 Cincinnati 38,117
61 Navy 36,165
62 Boston College 35,706
63 Boise State 35,121
64 Georgia Tech 34,408
65 Appalachian State 33,566
66 Maryland 31,934
67 Oregon State 31,498
68 Wake Forest 30,053
69 Stanford 29,965
70 San Diego State 29,892
71 South Florida 29,650
72 Vanderbilt 29,193
73 Northwestern 28,697
74 Army West Point 28,647
75 Air Force 26,926
76 Colorado State 26,891
77 UTSA 26,835
78 Troy 26,346
79 Memphis 26,196
80 Washington State 26,185
81 Houston 25,394
82 Southern Miss 25,131
83 SMU 24,971
84 Duke 24,505
85 UAB 23,058
86 James Madison 22,966
87 UNLV 22,112
88 UConn 22,095
89 Marshall 21,842
90 Liberty 20,954
91 Florida Atlantic 20,679
92 Tulane 20,361
93 Old Dominion 20,232
94 Wyoming 19,707
95 Toledo 19,557
96 UTEP 19,134
97 North Texas 19,025
98 Rice 19,011
99 Tulsa 18,745
100 Ohio 17,692
101 Miami (OH) 17,572
102 Texas State 17,541
103 Georgia Southern 17,379
104 Temple 17,277
105 Coastal Carolina 17,114
106 Utah State 16,954
107 South Alabama 16,646
108 San Jose State 16,422
109 Georgia State 16,023
110 Central Michigan 15,823
111 Buffalo 15,510
112 Western Kentucky 15,440
113 Arkansas State 15,265
114 Western Michigan 15,260
115 Eastern Michigan 15,186
116 Louisiana Tech 15,082
117 New Mexico State 15,034
118 New Mexico 14,966
119 Nevada 14,905
120 Louisiana 14,542
121 Middle Tennessee 14,363
122 Louisiana–Monroe 13,380
123 Kent State 13,354
124 Bowling Green 11,663
125 Ball State 11,637
126 Akron 11,199
127 Charlotte 10,907
128 Massachusetts 10,800
129 Hawaii 9,210
130 Northern Illinois 9,198

And five year average.

# School 5 Year Average
1 Michigan 110,603
2 Penn State 104,985
3 Ohio State 103,372
4 Texas A&M 101,011
5 Alabama 100,988
6 LSU 99,241
7 Texas 95,323
8 Tennessee 92,796
9 Georgia 92,760
10 Nebraska 88,911
11 Auburn 85,951
12 Florida 85,350
13 Oklahoma 84,233
14 Clemson 80,500
15 Wisconsin 77,054
16 Notre Dame 77,029
17 South Carolina 75,366
18 Michigan State 71,538
19 Iowa 67,274
20 Washington 66,553
21 Florida State 65,746
22 USC 62,433
23 Arkansas 61,781
24 Virginia Tech 60,571
25 BYU 57,701
26 Iowa State 57,399
27 Ole Miss 56,786
28 NC State 56,438
29 Mississippi State 56,030
30 West Virginia 55,835
31 Miami (FL) 55,050
32 Texas Tech 55,034
33 Kentucky 54,931
34 Oklahoma State 54,395
35 Oregon 53,247
36 UCLA 52,867
37 Missouri 51,174
38 Kansas State 49,629
39 Louisville 48,871
40 Arizona State 48,809
41 Purdue 48,762
42 North Carolina 48,478
43 Utah 47,406
44 Colorado 47,106
45 Baylor 44,250
46 Georgia Tech 43,961
47 Minnesota 43,683
48 Indiana 43,223
49 TCU 42,905
50 Pittsburgh 42,561
51 Arizona 42,158
52 Virginia 41,867
53 California 41,172
54 Stanford 40,417
55 UCF 40,176
56 Rutgers 39,413
57 Illinois 38,632
58 Maryland 37,747
59 ECU 36,588
60 Northwestern 36,588
61 Syracuse 35,680
62 Boston College 34,934
63 Memphis 34,787
64 South Florida 34,550
65 Oregon State 34,107
66 Cincinnati 33,172
67 Boise State 33,044
68 Navy 32,210
69 Army West Point 30,704
70 Fresno State 30,513
71 Houston 30,393
72 San Diego State 29,729
73 Washington State 29,101
74 Vanderbilt 28,075
75 Colorado State 27,920
76 Wake Forest 27,491
77 Air Force 27,271
78 Temple 26,787
79 Appalachian State 25,628
80 Kansas 25,559
81 UAB 25,255
82 Duke 24,915
83 Southern Miss 23,988
84 Troy 23,737
85 UTSA 23,423
86 Marshall 23,099
87 James Madison 22,807
88 SMU 21,969
89 Wyoming 21,078
90 North Texas 20,724
91 Rice 20,355
92 Toledo 20,312
93 UConn 20,191
94 Hawaii 20,002
95 Utah State 19,790
96 Arkansas State 19,665
97 Louisiana 19,044
98 UNLV 18,976
99 Old Dominion 18,814
100 Louisiana Tech 18,715
101 Tulane 18,503
102 Ohio 18,200
103 UTEP 18,122
104 Nevada 18,032
105 New Mexico 18,027
106 Western Michigan 17,929
107 Tulsa 17,922
108 Liberty 17,022
109 Georgia Southern 16,721
110 Texas State 16,702
111 Florida Atlantic 16,501
112 South Alabama 16,413
113 Buffalo 16,154
114 Eastern Michigan 16,092
115 Georgia State 15,962
116 Western Kentucky 15,864
117 Miami (OH) 15,459
118 Bowling Green 15,324
119 Akron 15,315
120 Middle Tennessee 15,009
121 San Jose State 14,945
122 Central Michigan 14,356
123 New Mexico State 14,248
124 Louisiana–Monroe 13,511
125 Coastal Carolina 12,818
126 Charlotte 12,683
127 Kent State 12,560
128 Massachusetts 10,819
129 Northern Illinois 10,058
130 Ball State 9,886

I haven't been able to find the 2021 attendance (certain individual schools, but not a complete list). 2020 also, but that year was flaky. I bet he is excluding 2020.

Would love for UAB to get above 30k for their average. Still progress though compared to a decade ago.

Also, it's impressive Nebraska still has the attendance they have despite their struggles.

I'll compare 2 random schools from the same conference, Temple and SMU. One is in the hotbed of football and one isnt and the one that isnt has higher attendance. Hmmm. No wonder SMU isnt as desirable for the Big 12 and Pac 12 as people think. I know they only have 32,000 seats but they still should be beating Temple. Imagine if Temple had a 30,000 on campus stadium, they would do well.

(01-26-2023 05:05 PM)darkdragon99 Wrote:  I'll compare 2 random schools from the same conference, Temple and SMU. One is in the hotbed of football and one isnt and the one that isnt has higher attendance. Hmmm. No wonder SMU isnt as desirable for the Big 12 and Pac 12 as people think. I know they only have 32,000 but they still should being Temple. Imagine if Temple had a 30,000 on campus stadium, they would do well.

You have no idea whether SMU is desirable or not for the PAC-12 unless you are sitting in the boardroom with university presidents.

I am always surprised at how relatively soft FSU's attendance is. This season was a "comeback" season for FSU, a season with a lot of good feeling, beginning with the upset win over LSU.

And yet attendance was 67k. Twenty-thousand less than Florida, despite having a much better season.

Yeah I know that compared to most schools 67k is very good. But FSU likes to think of itself as an elite-elite program with fanatical fan base, but truth is they have a bit of Miami in their fan base. Unless they are winning really big, like contending for the national title, a lot of fans stay home.

(01-26-2023 05:10 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  You have no idea whether SMU is desirable or not for the PAC-12 unless you are sitting in the boardroom with university presidents.

They are desirable academically and financially but maybe not fan support wise. TCU and SMU were once peer schools and TCU's attendance blows them away.

(01-26-2023 05:11 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  I am always surprised at how relatively soft FSU's attendance is. This season was a "comeback" season for FSU, a season with a lot of good feeling, beginning with the upset win over LSU.

And yet attendance was 67k. Twenty-thousand less than Florida, despite having a much better season.

Yeah I know that compared to most schools 67k is very good. But FSU likes to think of itself as an elite-elite program with fanatical fan base, but truth is they have a bit of Miami in their fan base. Unless they are winning really big, like contending for the national title, a lot of fans stay home.

The ACC is holding them back, eh ?

Also: Went to a Tennessee game this year, and for the first time in over decade, it felt like it did when Tennessee was nationally relevant in the late 90s/early 00s. It was a blast, even as someone who had little to no rooting interest in the game.

UCF had the highest number among the current G5 schools. No wonder the B12 took them. ECU is next but unfortunately North Carolina is very crowded with four ACC schools.

(01-26-2023 05:37 PM)random asian guy Wrote:  UCF had the highest number among the current G5 schools. No wonder the B12 took them. ECU is next but unfortunately North Carolina is very crowded with four ACC schools.

Pretty sure Cincinnati was at 101% capacity. We just have a smaller stadium than those guys and I don't think there is any rush to significantly expand the stadium other than some additional premium seating.

(01-26-2023 05:16 PM)darkdragon99 Wrote:  

(01-26-2023 05:11 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  I am always surprised at how relatively soft FSU's attendance is. This season was a "comeback" season for FSU, a season with a lot of good feeling, beginning with the upset win over LSU.

And yet attendance was 67k. Twenty-thousand less than Florida, despite having a much better season.

Yeah I know that compared to most schools 67k is very good. But FSU likes to think of itself as an elite-elite program with fanatical fan base, but truth is they have a bit of Miami in their fan base. Unless they are winning really big, like contending for the national title, a lot of fans stay home.

The ACC is holding them back, eh ?

No, this is on FSU. Before their decline in performance FSU was averaging over 80K in the ACC.

(01-26-2023 05:40 PM)CliftonAve Wrote:  

(01-26-2023 05:37 PM)random asian guy Wrote:  UCF had the highest number among the current G5 schools. No wonder the B12 took them. ECU is next but unfortunately North Carolina is very crowded with four ACC schools.

Pretty sure Cincinnati was at 101% capacity. We just have a smaller stadium than those guys and I don't think there is any rush to significantly expand the stadium other than some additional premium seating.

Yeah, a full, raucous stadium is why we enjoyed the second longest home winning streak until December of this year.

When I started to post this data to the spreadsheet I maintain which includes attendance I was skeptical about the accuracy of the numbers. I hadn't yet opened the link, and the 2022 numbers for the SEC were in many cases much higher than 2021.

The SEC as a whole shows a 5.8% year to year increase, bucking a growing trend toward attendance declines. Then I opened the link and saw that he also shows 2021 numbers, which were identical to mine. If we assume he got his numbers from the same source for both years, then they are probably accurate.

I'm going to post all the numbers to compare FBS totals year to year. Maybe the trend has indeed shifted and this doesn't just reflect one conference's performance.

I'm surprised that Maryland is still taking a tumble. Averaging 32K is a bad look for the Terrapins. It was an OK season (and Rutgers' attendance has adapted).

Other teams that are struggling for attendance: Louisville, Georgia Tech, West Virginia, Northwestern, UCLA, Stanford and Arizona State.

Overall, attendance increased by 2K per team amongst the P5...no more lingering impact of COVID on attendance.

(01-26-2023 06:40 PM)Wahoowa84 Wrote:  I'm surprised that Maryland is still taking a tumble. Averaging 32K is a bad look for the Terrapins. It was an OK season (and Rutgers' attendance has adapted).

Other teams that are struggling for attendance: Louisville, Georgia Tech, West Virginia, Northwestern, UCLA, Stanford and Arizona State.

Overall, attendance increased by 2K per team amongst the P5...no more lingering impact of COVID on attendance.

Maryland’s attendance decline is the ultimate counter-argument to the idea that the Big Ten should invite teams with questionable popularity under the belief that they’d become more popular once they’re in the Big Ten.

How did this years attendance compete to 2019? An increase of an average of just 2,000 fans in the Power 5 despite people becoming less scared of COVID does not sound good.

(01-26-2023 07:24 PM)Poster Wrote:  How did this years attendance compete to 2019? An increase of an average of just 2,000 fans in the Power 5 despite people becoming less scared of COVID does not sound good.

For the P5 (incl ND),
2022 = 59K (from d1ticker.com)
2021 = 57K (from d1ticker.com)
2019 = 58K (from ncaa.com)

I have not seen 2020 attendance figures

Per P5 conference in 2022
SEC 77K
B1G 66K
B12 59K
ACC 48K
PAC 44K

Let's be real, this data is very sketchy across most of FBS with most schools reporting tickets sold. Until everyone reports butts-in-the-seats (which will never happen until the NCAA drops their unenforced attendance requirement, and even then there's no incentive to report it that way), this list is mostly directional but not that accurate.

(01-26-2023 05:11 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  I am always surprised at how relatively soft FSU's attendance is. This season was a "comeback" season for FSU, a season with a lot of good feeling, beginning with the upset win over LSU.

And yet attendance was 67k. Twenty-thousand less than Florida, despite having a much better season.

Yeah I know that compared to most schools 67k is very good. But FSU likes to think of itself as an elite-elite program with fanatical fan base, but truth is they have a bit of Miami in their fan base. Unless they are winning really big, like contending for the national title, a lot of fans stay home.

Sports attendance (however you measure it) is very often a result of previous seasons, not the season in progress. FSU had gone through four straight losing seasons and probably didn't have much excitement within their fan base, hence why their season opener drew just 51K but they sold out the home game right after beating LSU. Then they lost a few straight and some of that excitement dampened, so it decreased again since the season ticket base wasn't great based on their losing during 2018-21. The opposite effect occurs if you have a mostly winning program that has a bad season; attendance might be fine (but tail off) when the losing begins, and then falls off big the following season when it's hard to generate momentum with fans.

I don't disagree with your assessment of FSU overall since some programs like Nebraska have drawn better even when they're meh or lousy, but the point still remains.

Kansas attendance certainly improved. Easy to see why BYU, UC, and UCF got the call up.