Amazing college football attendances

Spend quite alot of my time in the States and can't believe the attendances that these guys pull for their college football games . They absolutely blitz the the NFL team . In fact 18 out of the top 20 biggest stadiums in the USA are college stadiums.

Look at this :-
1. Michigan..........112,179

2. Ohio St...........105,231

3. Alabama..........101,821

4. Penn St..........101,427

5. Texas..........100,524

6. Tennessee..........94,642

7. LSU..........92,868

8. Georgia..........92,613

9. Florida.........89,061

10. Texas A&M ..........87,183
Michigan’s 112,179 fans per game over eight home contests set an all-time mark for individual schools. The Wolverines broke their own record of 111,825 set in 2010. It was Michigan’s 14th straight attendance title.

Four other programs also topped the 100,000 mark – Ohio State at 105,231, Alabama at 101,821, Penn State at 101,427, and Texas at 100,524. This


And these are averages !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm very much into NFL and college football. I can't get my head around how much publicity the college guys get. Their pretty much stars before they leave college. I played football at Pencoed College with Jason Perry. Got to the semi finals of the British colleges cup, one man and his dog watched the game. Crazy americans.

People also forget how we'll educated a lot of NFL players actually are.

Football in this country could learn a thing or two from the set up in the USA.

Most folk can associate with NFL football as you win your division you go into the playoffs and the there's a final.
However I struggle to understand the College set up and I think Most Americans I speak to think its fundamentally wrong in how teams progress . I believe this is why we don't see much coverage in the UK.
The college games on average are around about £45 so they must be doing something right!

300,000,000 people have to watch sport somewhere.

Only 32 pro teams in the Usa, means alot of people have to get their football fix somewhere and there are alot more college teams than there are NFL teams. Also some of these players become NFL stars of the future. And most NFL stadiums only have like 70000 - 80000 capacity compared to some of the bigger college stadiums. I remember watching teams like Notre Dame on a sunday morning on screensport back in the early nineties when they had a big fullback by the name of Jerome Bettis!! Wish sky would show more college football.

that just proves to me that the yanks are mad and will watch any shite!

The colleges have huge populations and the locals have a real affinity to their local college team.

It's great. I love America.

Most folk can associate with NFL football as you win your division you go into the playoffs and the there's a final.
However I struggle to understand the College set up and I think Most Americans I speak to think its fundamentally wrong in how teams progress . I believe this is why we don't see much coverage in the UK.
The college games on average are around about £45 so they must be doing something right!

This is very true. In the top level of college football, the BCS (Bowl Championship Subdivision), only two teams will have the chance to play for the title in a one off game. A committee of sports writers and others connected to college football are polled each week and the standings are made from these opinion polls. The top two teams, based on these polls, end up playing in the national championship game. Often times, the third place team will have a similar (and at times even BETTER) record than the top two teams! However, starting in 2014 the BCS will have a 4 team playoff to determine the champion. Again, the teams included are based on the opinion polls, but at least there will be more teams with the possibility of winning. The college I attended (James Madison University) played in the second level of college football called the FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) and they have a 16 team playoff at the end of the season to determine the champion. The main difference between the BCS and the FCS is that the BCS schools are able to provide more scholarships to players. Consequently, the BCS typically has the bigger, faster, and stronger players. At JMU, the crowd averages over 20,000 fans per game. College football is certainly a part of our culture here in the US. For your viewing pleasure I've provided a link on tailgating https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke0p50G6slE. Tailgaiting is what happens before college football games across the nation.

Have you seen the size of their university campuses? They are small cities. Penn State is massive and Michigan State basically IS Ann Arbor. The sports facilities are amazing.

Check them out on Google Maps, every sport is catered for, not sure I've spotted a soccer pitch though.

People also forget how we'll educated a lot of NFL players actually are.

Football in this country could learn a thing or two from the set up in the USA.

Yes their scholarship system where they offer talented sports kids a chance to gain a good education in turn for playing for their college seems instrumental IMO.
We have football academies but how many parents will hold their kids back in order to get them a good education ?

Back in 2008 whilst in Florida on holiday, I took a trip to Jacksonville to watch the Jaguars play the Browns in the NFL. The stadium is also used for the Annual Florida v Georgia college football game. The crowd for the NFL game was around 38,000 in a stadium with a capacity for 58,000. However, a week later they put in extra seating for the Florida-Georgia game and it was a 72,000 sell out!

According to Wikipedia, each team makes around $1.7m from every game, which is always a sell out and played on neutral territory in Jacksonville every year.

A further interesting point is that people start "tailgating" (sort of outdoor partying) up to 6 hours before the game, and as you approach the stadium, from a couple of miles away every spare piece of ground and car park has people tailgating for miles around. It was amazing enough for the NFL game, so goodness knows what it was like for the college game.

Of course, the games have scarcity value as there are usually only 6 or 7 home games in a season, but what an atmosphere.

Some of you reading this may have access to ESPN America, either on Virgin or Sky. Have a look at the games one Saturday evening to see what we mean. Great atmosphere there - wish we could do it at the CCS!

Back in 2008 whilst in Florida on holiday, I took a trip to Jacksonville to watch the Jaguars play the Browns in the NFL. The stadium is also used for the Annual Florida v Georgia college football game. The crowd for the NFL game was around 38,000 in a stadium with a capacity for 58,000. However, a week later they put in extra seating for the Florida-Georgia game and it was a 72,000 sell out!

According to Wikipedia, each team makes around $1.7m from every game, which is always a sell out and played on neutral territory in Jacksonville every year.

A further interesting point is that people start "tailgating" (sort of outdoor partying) up to 6 hours before the game, and as you approach the stadium, from a couple of miles away every spare piece of ground and car park has people tailgating for miles around. It was amazing enough for the NFL game, so goodness knows what it was like for the college game.

Of course, the games have scarcity value as there are usually only 6 or 7 home games in a season, but what an atmosphere.

Some of you reading this may have access to ESPN America, either on Virgin or Sky. Have a look at the games one Saturday evening to see what we mean. Great atmosphere there - wish we could do it at the CCS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dawv04k5_78

Evening scummers, was browsing your board for abusive posts on Swansea when I came across this...

Off to the States next month and hoping to catch Penn State, my mate's a grad from the Uni and a massive fan, his Dad goes regularly to games... (he doesn't on account of living over here... unbelievable the crowds they get (imagine Cardiff/Swansea Uni playing football or rugby in front of 100k plus) This despite the fact that the regular arguments for dropping attendances in this country, such as too much on the tele and ticket prices seem not to be obstacles.... games are regularly on tele, I watched PSU beat Illinois last night and that's the fourth game I've seen them play live this season and apart from those tickets that go to the students, those that go to the alumni and other fans can be just as pricey as tickets to the Lib or Legoland... Beaver Stadium, home to the Nittany Lions isn't exactly in a city-central location, so really we can only take our hats off to sports fans over there and admit that we can learn a lot in this country... fantastic atmosphere and I'm hoping next month to be part of a Penn State WHITE OUT, will be wearing my Swans shirt proudly....

cue the abuse.......

Grew up wtaching College and Pro American Football.

The reason the college teams have more rabid followings especially in the American Southeast is four fold.

1. The schools develop and re-load their own fan bases every year as large American universities have freshman classes in the thousands. This means that there are thousands and thousands of alumni who travel to their home school every weekend for games. This also speaks to the loyalty as alumni are very loyal to their schools. Even school traditionally bad at football like Vanderbilt boast 25-30,000 fans every week, because of their alumni.

2. The nature of the sport itself. In all levels of American football there are only 7 home dates a year, and much easier to catch every game. No other professional sport has fewer games.

3. In areas where there are few NFL teams, NCAA football is the only game in town. In the southeast for generations there were no NFL teams except in Atlanta and Miami. This means teams like Alabama, Tennessee, etc....grew tremendous fan bases.

4. College American football was popular long before the professionl version of the sport. When the NFL's Titans came to Tennessee the University of Tennessee had a 100 year head start.

BTW The Jacksonville NFL franchise has the worst home following of any of the NFL teams by a large margain.

Penn state will not dominate as much as they have Ij the past due the sanctions imposed because of the scum that is jerry Sandusky