May 11, 2009

2009 Spring Game Attendance Numbers

The Birmingham News must have a ton of interns scouring team press releases and scanning every beat writer. That's the only think I can think of to explain how they were able to compile spring game attendance statistics for 2009.

Some highlights:

- Ohio State "won" the annual spring game attendance battle. Although there is a growing tendency towards hyped & inflated numbers, there's little doubt that the Buckeyes had a huge turnout. The Ohio State University announced the crowd as 95,722.

- The SEC averaged 37,936 per game. TBN notes that is "more than 55 Division I-A schools averaged in 2008 regular-season attendance." Damn.

- Despite big numbers by tOSU and Penn State, the Big10 only managed second in average attendance (30,117), followed by the Big 12 (20,449), ACC (14,715), Big East (10,130) and Pac-10 (7,842).

- According to TBN, 26% of the BCS schools charged admission, up from 24% last year. In most cases the tickets were $10 or less, with many schools donating proceeds to charities or campus projects.

2009 ANNOUNCED SPRING GAME ATTENDANCE

1. Ohio State 95,722
2. Alabama 84,050
3. Nebraska 77,670
4. Penn State 76,500
5. Florida 65,000
6. Tennessee 51,488
7. Michigan 50,000
8. Auburn 45,381
9. Texas 44,000
10. Georgia 42,458
11. Virginia Tech 41,000
12. Florida State 36,000
13. Mississippi State 31,606
14. Notre Dame 31,104
15. LSU 30,532

A complete PDF of spring game attendance is online here.

Comments:

2009 Spring Game Attendance Numbers
The Birmingham News must have a ton of interns scouring team press releases and scanning every beat writer. That's the only think I can think of to explain how they were able to compile spring game attendance statistics for 2009. Some highlights: - Ohio State "won" the annual spring game attendance battle. Although there is a growing tendency towards hyped & inflated numbers, there's little doubt that the Buckeyes had a huge turnout. The Ohio State University announced the crowd as 95,722. - The SEC averaged 37,936 per game. TBN notes that is "more than 55 Division I-A schools averaged in 2008 regular-season attendance." Damn. - Despite big numbers by tOSU and Penn State, the Big10 only managed second in average attendance (30,117), followed by the Big 12 (20,449), ACC (14,715), Big East (10,130) and Pac-10 (7,842). - According to TBN, 26% of the BCS schools charged admission, up from 24% last year. In most cases the tickets were $10 or less, with many schools donating proceeds to charities or campus projects.

2009 ANNOUNCED SPRING GAME ATTENDANCE

1. Ohio State 95,722 2. Alabama 84,050 3. Nebraska 77,670 4. Penn State 76,500 5. Florida 65,000 6. Tennessee 51,488 7. Michigan 50,000 8. Auburn 45,381 9. Texas 44,000 10. Georgia 42,458 11. Virginia Tech 41,000 12. Florida State 36,000 13. Mississippi State 31,606 14. Notre Dame 31,104 15. LSU 30,532 A complete PDF of spring game attendance is online here.