CFB Attendance Declines for 7th Straight Season; Lowest Average Since 1981

College football attendance dropped last season to its lowest point in 40 years.

According to Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports, the average football game had 39,848 fans in attendance last season. It was the lowest attendance since 1981 when 34% of fans attended games.

College football attendance has declined in each of the past seven years it has been measured.

The NCAA did not keep attendance records in 2020 because of the COVID-19 Pandemic, but the drop from the year before to the year after was significant.

The biggest year-to-year decline in college football history was recorded by Dodd, as attendance went down by 1,629 fans on a per-game basis.

Each of the past seven seasons, attendance has dropped by at least 300 fans per game, and the drop has reached at least 1,000 fans per game three times.

The Big Ten was the only Power Five conference to see an increase in attendance this past season.

The SEC has led college football in attendance for the 23rd year in a row, but its attendance has decreased over the last five years.

The Big Ten, Sun Belt and Mid-American Conferences had an increase in 2021. The Big Ten and Sun Belt were up slightly, while the MAC went up 12.4 percent for its highest average attendance in seven years.

The Mountain West Conference and Conference USA had their lowest attendance ever.

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said that the Big 12 is competing against the beer that is cold in your refrigerator and no lines at the restroom. We have to make sure we improve the game day experience.

Bowlsby believes that younger people are less likely to spend money on sporting events than older people.

Bowlsby wanted to know if fans preferred to watch games on television.

The average number of viewers who watched college football games on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 was up 19 percent from 2020 and 2 percent from 2019.

ABC had its highest college football ratings on a per-game basis in over a year.