BCSP XIII-34: Attendance Matters

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Attendance Matters

2006 NCAA FOOTBALL ATTENDANCE

Division II	T	G	TOT.	AVG.
1. SIAC	10	50	388,522	7,770
2. Mid-America	10	58	312,578	5,389
3. Lone Star	13	71	379,400	5,344
4. Gulf South#	11	56	284,035	5,072
5. North Central#	9	50	232,869	4,657
6. CIAA #	11	54	241,337	4,469
7. South Atlantic	8	45	153,950	3,421

Div. II Teams	G	TOT.	AVG.
1. Fort Valley St.	3	41,047	13,682
2. Tuskegee	5	55,979	11,195
8. Albany St.	4	34,683	8,670
10. Morehouse	5	41,361	8,272
12. Miles	5	39,855	7,971
13. NC Central	6	47,186	7,264
14. Clark Atlanta	6	42,993	7,165
23. Lane	5	28,274	5,654
24. Eliz. City St.	5	27,910	5,508
26. Benedict	5	27,655	5,531
41. Stillman	5	20,514	4,102
64. Kentucky St.	5	17,198	3,439

Football Championship Series (FCS)

CONF.	AVG.
1. SWAC	15,561
2. Southern	12,689
3. MEAC	11,997
4. Big Sky	10,712
5. Gateway	10,615

FCS Teams	AVG.
4. Jackson St.	20,714
5. Florida A&M	15,216
6. Southern	16,453
13. SC State	14,094
14. Alcorn St.	13,298
15. Grambling	13,229
19. Tennessee St.	12, 570
23. Norfolk St.	11,962
25. NC A&T	11,556

The NCAA has announced that the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference has won the Division II football attendance title for the fourth consecutive year and the Southwestern Athletic Conference has returned to the top of the Football Championship Subdivision after a one-year absence.

The SIAC also had six (6) teams finish in the top 15 in team attendance out of a total of 147 total teams in Division II while black colleges held down seven of the top 20 positions in the FCS, four of them SWAC schools.

Fort Valley State (1st), Tuskegee (2nd), Albany State (8th) and Morehouse (10th), Miles (12th) and Clark Atlanta (14th) led the way for the SIAC to achieve its fourth consecutive attendance title and eighth out of the last nine years. The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association finished sixth in Div. II and was led by North Carolina Central's 13th place finish.

Tuskegee fell just short of winning its 5th attendance title ('98, '99, '01, '02) coming up short to Fort Valley State who averaged 13,682 fans per game while Tuskegee managed to average 11,197.

The SWAC returned to the top spot in FCS (formerly Div. I-AA) with 15,561 fans per game, almost 3,000 more per game than the Southern Conference which snapped the SWAC's 27-year grip on the title in 2005. The Mid Eastern Athletic Conference was third averaging 11,997 fans per game.

Jackson State of the SWAC, averaged 20,714 fans to its five home games to finish fourth among the FCS teams. Southern (6th), Alcorn State (14th) and Grambling (15th) are the other SWAC schools in the top 20.

Florida A&M (5th) and South Carolina State (13th) were MEAC schools among the top 20. Tennessee State of the OVC is 19th at 12,570 fans per game.

As a whole the NCAA finished the 2006 season with a per-game average of 14,124 topping the 22-year-old record of 13,852 set in 1984 and was a one-year jump of nearly 1,000 more fans per game than in 2005.

The 615 NCAA teams drew an average of 46,249, better than the record mark of 46,039 per game in 2005 for all four divisions. The FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision formally Division I-A) set a record in overall attendance, too (counting neutral-site games and bowls), as 36,814,468 people came through the turnstiles in 2006. The previous high in that subdivision was 35,085,646 in 2003, the last season FBS schools played 12 regular-season games.

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