SIAC wins fifth consecutive Division II Football Attendance Title

July 23, 2008

Tucker, GA – The National Collegiate Athletic Association has announced that the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference has won the Division II football attendance title for the fifth consecutive year. The Conference also had seven (7) teams finish in the top 25 in team attendance out of a total of 144 total teams in Division II. Miles College and Tuskegee University finished 1st and 2nd respectively as the individual team leaders of attendance in Division II.

Miles College (1st), Tuskegee University (2nd), Morehouse College (7th), Albany State University (13th), Clark Atlanta University (23rd), Fort Valley State University (24th), and Benedict College (25th) led the way for the conference to achieve its fifth consecutive football attendance title and ninth out of the last ten years. Undefeated HBCU National Champion Tuskegee fell just short of winning their 5th attendance title (’98,’99,’01,’02) to Miles College who averaged 13,225 fans per game while Tuskegee managed to average 13,118.

As a whole the NCAA, for the second straight season, set a new standard as during the 2007 season 619 schools combined for a total gate of 48,751,861, topping last season’s record by 842,548 fans. Perhaps a more significant indication of the sport’s popularity than the total numbers is that the per-game mark was broken in both the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and for all divisions combined. The average number of fans attending an FBS game in 2007 was 46,962, better than the record mark of 46,249 per game in 2006. For all divisions combined, the 2007 per-game average of 14,288 topped last year’s record of 14,124.

The FBS set a record in overall attendance, too (counting neutral-site games and bowls), as 37,146,661 people came through the turnstiles in 2007. The previous high in that subdivision was also last season with 36,814,468. Division II also set a total-attendance record, topping three million fans for the second time with 3,033,616 and eclipsing the mark of 3,005,214 set in 2006. Although all-time records were not set in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision and Division III, both classifications’ numbers were up for the second straight season. The 5,895,387 fans that saw FCS games in 2007 was the fourth-highest total in that subdivision and was up 238 fans per game from the previous year.

George Mategakis, SIAC Interim Commissioner stated “this is a tremendous privilege and honor that we are able to be ranked number one regarding attendance. This further illustrates our tremendous fan support. It comes to no surprise to myself and the rest of the SIAC staff as we get to witness this tremendous support first hand every year. We would also like to challenge our football fans to support the other eleven championship sports as we strive to be the best in every sport and support each and every one of our talented student athletes within the SIAC.”

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