The NCAA News - News and Features

January 6, 1997

Football attendance in 1996 just misses all-time high

BY RICHARD M. CAMPBELL
NCAA Statistics Coordinator

NCAA college football attendance in 1996 rocketed to the second-best figure in history, mostly due to a continuing growth in the number of Division I-A football fans.

Home-game attendance totals for 1996 were just short of the all-time best figure in 1994, which exceeded 36 million for the only time in college football history. This season's total for all 566 NCAA teams was 35,997,631, up 359,847 from 1995 but short of the all-time mark of 36,459,896 in 1994.

The Division I-A total of 26,535,520 was the second best since the beginning of attendance compilations. Home-game attendance in Division I-A accounted for nearly 74 percent of the 1996 NCAA national totals.

Division I-AA was the only one of the four NCAA divisions showing a decrease from 1995 attendance. With the recent addition of many nonscholarship programs in I-AA, attendance went down for the second straight year.

National football attendance first was compiled by the NCAA Statistics Service in 1948. Since 1978, only NCAA teams have been included in attendance figures.

Division I-A recorded the biggest increase at 699,051 in 1996, Division II increased 54,449 and Division III was up 11,643 from last year. Division I-AA dropped 405,296 from its 1995 figure to 5,255,033, the lowest in the division since 1992.

Michigan again

Michigan took its 23rd consecutive national team attendance title but the Wolverines faced a stiff challenge from Tennessee, which parlayed its 1996 stadium expansion into the closest race in years. It was the first time in history that two teams averaged more than 100,000 in attendance.

The Wolverines posted an average of 105,932 for its six home games, the second-best average in college football history, to nip Tennessee's average of 105,418 for six home games. Only Michigan's 106,217 average in 1994 topped this year's. This also was the Volunteers' 12th time in second place in the past 13 years. Penn State, a top-three finisher since 1991, took third at 96,167.

The Big Ten and Southeastern Conferences had every team in the top 10 (see accompanying charts) in team attendance, so it was no big surprise that those two leagues fought it out for the conference attendance title. The Big Ten won for the fourth consecutive year, averaging 67,520 for all home games, but the Southeastern Conference drew the third-largest total ever for a conference with 4,847,380 for a 64,632 per-game average.

All of the three new conference alignments set records for total attendance, and the Western Athletic Conference (with six new teams) was the only new lineup that failed to set a record for average attendance in 1996.

Conference USA upped its per-game attendance by 2,853 from last year using the same lineup of teams.

Six I-A leagues posted at least two million in total attendance and nine I-A conferences averaged at least 20,000 fans per game.

Alcorn State in I-AA

Alcorn State averaged 21,536 to capture the Division I-AA attendance prize, its second since the division was formed in 1978. Jackson State, last year's record-setting winner, finished second at 20,977.

The Southwestern Athletic Conference won its 19th consecutive I-AA attendance title, averaging 15,405 per game. The Southern Conference was next with 11,340.

Divisions II and III

Norfolk State won its sixth Division II attendance title since 1990, averaging 15,676 this year. North Dakota State was second at 14,762.

In Division III, St. John's (Minnesota) took its second straight attendance crown and third in the past four years by averaging 6,834. Emory & Henry was second at 5,399, and Wisconsin-Whitewater was third at 4,982.