USF crowds: Biggest increase in NCAA football

Congrats to USF football, which led Division I-A in increased attendance from 2006 to 2007, jumping from an average home announced attendance of 30,222 last season at Raymond James Stadium to 53,170.

The increase of 22,948 fans is more than 9,000 more than the next closest school, Temple, and the Owls were the only program out of 119 Division I-A schools to experience a higher percentage gain the Bulls. Temple's crowds went up by 82.5 percent, while USF's went up 75.9 percent.

There were eight schools nationally whose attendance rose by 10,000 or more fans ... You guys know USF and Temple are two of them, so I'll invite you to guess four of the other six. (No looking up the stats, either) I'll post the eight schools at noon Wednesday ...

Comments

[Marshall]

definitly Kansas
BC? Arizona State?

[Marc R]

uconn, cinci, kansas, virginia, miss state, asu

[bull_roarer]

Is there a site that shows these figures for all 1A schools? I'd be curious how other schools did -- and if any schools experienced a drop off in attendance. Thanks.

B.T.W. Greg - you do a great job with this blog. I really enjoy it.

[nybullsfan]

UCONN
Kansas
Illinois
Arizona State
Colorado
Western Kentucky

Top 5 Losers
1. Noter Dame
2. Nebraska
3. Minnesota
4. Louisville
5. Miami (FL)

[Stephen]

Any school actually celebrating attendance numbers is a joke. We all know 99% of all the schools out there fudge their numbers.

Does USF still only say that Raymond James seats 44,000?

[Adam]

Pitt...oh wait no, I am talking about increase...

In no particular order
Kansas
UConn
UCF - new stadium
BC
Arizona State
Cincy

[USF_Grouper]

I say
Cincy, Rutgers, UCF, BC, Arizona State, and UCONN

I think probably at least 3 of the 8 schools are in the BE

[Ari Hinkelberger]

I say Arizona State, Kansas, Missouri, Vanderbilt, Kentucky

[Dave W]

I'll go with Cincy, UCONN, AZ State, UCF, Kansas, Buffalo

[matt]

What is interesting is that the WV-USF game had 47,000 plus in attendance but Ray Jay is supposed to hold 65,000. How did that happen? Where did those people sit?

Matt

[Ryan]

I would have to say UCF on the attendance increase. Probably Kansas too. They didn't sit, that game was standing room only in the student section.

[nybullsfan]

WVU attendance 67,012 announced, 62,004 actual

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_South_Florida_Bulls_football_team

Raymond James capacity 65,857 (expandable to 75,000)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_James_Stadium

[Dale]

UCF, Kansas, Cincy

[jt]

Elon has to be one of them, they went from 30 to 300, 1000% increase. These are big increases because they are such small numbers.

UCF, Kansas, Cincinatti, UCONN, North Carolina, FAU

Does Elon count? Are they 1-A?

[GO]

Does UCF count? They are mid major.

[G.A.]

OK. Here are your answers:

Team 2006 2007 Change
1. USF 30,222 53,170 +22,948
2. Temple 15,810 28,850 +13,049
3. UCF 31,569 44,000 +12,431
4. Kentucky 57,330 68,824 +11,494
5. Illinois 43,445 54,872 +11,427
6. UCLA 64,955 76,379 +11,424
7. Washingt.57,483 67,732 +10,249
8. UNLV 19,240 29,281 +10,041

You can find all the 2007 info here:

http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/2007/Internet/attendance/IA_AVGATTENDANCE.pdf

(just change the URL to get 2006 data)

[JoeB]

I'll say UCF, Stanford, Kansas, Indiana, Cincinnati, and Illinois.

[VOR]

For anyone who actually went to the WVU / USF game you couls actually see over 2,000 people standing on the deck by the pirate ship. Same occurs on the deck by opposite endzone.
Add to it all the folks sitting inside the club lounge watching on the huge TV wall sitting in the A/C in their comfy leather seats easlily surpasses the 2,000 folks.

The crowd at RayJay stadium on TV often looks "thinner" because of the reasons listed above.

[Ari Hinkelberger]

I take credit as the only guy on this board to guess Ky..

[GP]

The stat on the WV game was 67,012 where the max capacity of 75,000 is for special events (concerts and the such, because they open the field as a seating area) Anyone know what the max ever to be in RayJ is?

[Adam]

So, UCF had "excatly" 44,000 average? Is that their capacity?

If it is not the capcaity of cable field, that that is odd. If it is the capacity, then they are lying. I know there were games that weren't 100% sold out.

I know they had big increases, and I am not knocking that, but I do highly doubt that they had capacity crowds at every game, and if they take that as a slap in the face (anticipating UCFers jumping on this), it is not intended as that. But, when you report your average as capacity, something is awry.

[nybullsfan]

all-time RJS record attendance 71,921

Super Bowl XXXV: January 28, 2001 Baltimore Ravens 34, New York Giants 7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_James_Stadium

[Tom]

It is amazing how much USF football grew in one year. Has there been this large of an increase from one season to the next?