College football attendance declines for seventh straight season to lowest average since 1981

 

College football attendance declines for seventh straight season to lowest average since 1981

The average for the division's 130 teams slipped to 39,848 fans per game. That's the fewest since 1981 when the average was 34,621.

Nationally, the average attendance in 2021 was down 15%, more than 7,000 per game, from a record mark of 46,971 in 2008.

Last season marked the seventh straight year and ninth year in the last 10 that FBS attendance has declined. The NCAA has been tracking FBS attendance since 1976, two years before then-Division I-AA (Football Championship Subdivision) was created.

The per-game national decline of 1,629 fans in 2021 is the steepest ever, a 3.93% drop from 2019. The NCAA did not compile attendance statistics from the COVID-19-impacted 2020 season for the first time since it began keeping overall attendance figures in 1948. The 2021 numbers include attendance at home, neutral-site and bowl games.

FBS attendance declines

SEASON	ATTENDANCE	CHANGE
2014	44,603	-1,068
2015	43,933	-670
2016	43,612	-321
2017	42,203	-1,409
2018	41,856	-347
2019	41,477	-379
2021	39,848*	-1,629

* Lowest since 1981

The decrease spared no part of the country. More of the half of the teams in the final AP Top 25 saw attendance declines, including eight of the top 10. For the seventh consecutive year, a majority of FBS conferences (seven of 10) declined in attendance. Compare that to 2010 when only the Pac-12 saw fewer fans attend games among the major conferences.

In 2021, only the Big Ten experienced attendance gain among the Power Five conferences. Michigan led the country in attendance for the fifth year in a row and for the 21st time in the last 22 seasons.

For the 23rd consecutive year, the SEC led the country in attendance with 72,195 fans per game. Still, the nation's most football crazy league was not immune from the trend. The SEC suffered an attendance decline for a fifth consecutive year since an all-time high of 78,630 in 2015. Even though the average decline from 2019 was minimal (528 fans per game), the SEC posted its lowest average attendance since 1999.

CONFERENCE	AVG. ATTENDANCE '21	% CHANGE '19	NOTES
SEC	72,195	-0.007	Lowest since '99
Big Ten	65,252	+0.003	Highest since '18
Big 12	55,017	-4.3	Lowest since '00
Pac-12	43,865	-4.8	Lowest ever*
ACC	42,599	-11.7	Lowest since '90
Independents	32,146	-13.2	Lowest since '01
AAC	28,592	-3.0	Lowest ever*
MWC	21,401	-7.9	Lowest ever*
Sun Belt	18,410	+0.04	Highest since '13
C-USA	18,048	-11.5	Lowest ever*
MAC	17,456	+12.4	Highest since '06

The national attendance dip remains both real and ongoing. Administrators have long been concerned about retaining students. If students don't go to games, they have less of an emotional attachment when it comes to giving back to their alma mater in their peak earning years.

"Look at the 25-40 age range," Bowlsby added. "They're more inclined to give their donation dollars to someplace other than athletics. They aren't quite inclined to commit to six Saturdays in the fall."

Football remains healthy on television. Thirteen of the top 14-rated primetime telecasts in 2021 were NFL games, according to Sports Media Watch. The top-rated college football game came in at No. 15; it was the College Football Playoff semifinal between Clemson and Ohio State. Last season's CFP National Championship, Alabama vs. Ohio State, finished No. 16. No other college game appeared in the top 100.

The 2022 CFP semifinals were the lowest rated since 2014, the year the playoff debuted. Last month's CFP National Championship between Alabama and Georgia saw ratings rise from the prior year, which was the least-watched championship game of the BCS era (since 1998), according to Sports Media Watch.

2021 P5 Attendance Down, ACC the worst

Conf	Avg Att '21	% Chng '19	Notes
SEC	72,195	-0.007	Lowest since '99
Big Ten	65,252	0.003	Highest since '18
Big 12	55,017	-4.3	Lowest since '00
Pac-12	43,865	-4.8	Lowest ever*
ACC	42,599	-11.7	Lowest since '90