I recently saw a chart with significant business analysis value, revealing the "home game ticket sales baseline" for NCAA D1 FBS college football in 2025.

It's worth noting that the college football regular season is very short, running only from late August to mid-December, with each team playing a total of 12 regular season games.​

Due to the home and away system, most teams only play 6 to 7 home games per season (a few powerhouses can schedule 8).

With such a limited number of games, home game ticket sales become the top priority for each school's athletic department revenue.

Through this list of "Top 68 Schools by Average Attendance Nationwide," we can not only see the ticket sales baseline but also uncover interesting insights into North American venue economics from the cross-comparison of "Avg. Attendance" and "Percent Capacity."

In the ranking, the top three schools nationwide in average attendance are Michigan, Penn State, and Texas A&M, respectively.

A common characteristic of these three schools is that their home stadiums all have a capacity of over 100,000 people, and their locations might be considered rural by Taiwanese standards.

Notably, Michigan and Texas A&M even exceeded 103% capacity, demonstrating extremely strong local appeal and stadium revenue potential, serving as crucial business engines for the schools and vitalizing local economies.​

Based on this chart, here are 5 key observations:

1. Big Ten and SEC Dominate the Top Market

All 14 top-ranked schools belong to either the Big Ten or SEC conferences.

This reflects the absolute dominance and box office drawing power of the two super conferences in US college football.

2. The Power of the "100,000-Person Club"

A total of 8 universities nationwide have an average attendance exceeding 100,000.

Michigan leads the list with 110,842 attendees, followed closely by Penn State and Texas A&M.

3. Extreme Phenomena in Capacity Utilization

Although Oregon ranks 30th in total attendance, its capacity utilization is as high as 108.49% (the highest in the entire chart).

This indicates that its venue is in an extremely overloaded state, with significant potential for ticket price increases or expansion; in contrast, UCLA, ranked 60th in total attendance, has a capacity utilization of only 41.56%, indicating very high venue space idleness.

However, UCLA recently decided to abandon the tradition of holding home games at the Rose Bowl stadium, planning to use the NFL professional-grade venue, SoFi Stadium.

4. The Contested 40,000-70,000 Person Range

Attendance for schools ranked 17th (Wisconsin) to 44th (Colorado) mostly falls between 50,000 and 70,000.​

This is the primary distribution segment for most ACC and Big 12 conference powerhouses.​

5. The Special Status of Independent Schools

Notre Dame, as the only school labeled Independent in the chart, has long existed as a "lone wolf."​

Notre Dame, which does not belong to any conference, also ranked 16th last season with an average attendance of 77,622 and maintained a perfect 100% capacity utilization, showcasing its unique and stable brand commercial value.​

📸: Jeff Fuller／📊: D1Ticker