does anyone have links to a ranking list on FCS enrollment schools?

[whoanellie]

I'm wondering based on enrollment who really does a stellar job in FCS attendance?

[UAalum72]

You're assuming that student population relates to attendance. At how many schools is the student section more than 20-25% of the total? Local habits and entertainment competition may make more of a difference.

[FurmanWins!!]

Don't have a link to actual figures but I know Furman is always near the top of that list.
Generally averaging between 11,000-12,500 depending on the type of season we are having, with a student population of 2,600.

[JmuSkinsfan]

JMU currently averaging 25,400 through 2 games ... including 8,000 students a game ... with an enrollment around 18,000 and growing.

[Twentysix]

NDSU has 14000 enrolled and gets pretty close to a full student section every game at 4000 student seats.

[FurmanWins!!]

I am not a math major but my numbers come out to show that Furman generally averages attendance around 450% of its student population, I don't know of to many schools in the entire country that even come close to that number, and that has been true for about 30 years now, not just some school who has a growing attendance in the past year or two.

[ElonPride]

You're assuming that student population relates to attendance. At how many schools is the student section more than 20-25% of the total? Local habits and entertainment competition may make more of a difference.

As do alumni. You take Elon for instance.....only apprx 26,000 LIVING alumni with a good number of those being from the north. Now compare that to a school like App who has apprx 74,000 living in North Carolina. Who's going to have more at a game?

IMO, anytime you can nearly double or triple the number of your enrollment at a weekend game, you're doing a decent job. Furman fans, that's a heckofa statistic in your favor.

[boonegoon]

As do alumni. You take Elon for instance.....only apprx 26,000 LIVING alumni with a good number of those being from the north. Now compare that to a school like App who has apprx 74,000 living in North Carolina. Who's going to have more at a game?

IMO, anytime you can nearly double or triple the number of your enrollment at a weekend game, you're doing a decent job. Furman fans, that's a heckofa statistic in your favor.

I agree, that is a stat I doubt many FBS schools could match. Tennessee has 27000 students and house over 100k at their stadium. That's proportional but rare.

[Squealofthepig]

Anyone know of a source that lists student enrollment at all colleges? I know I can find them piecemeal, but if someone knows of a source, happy to build up a quick spreadsheet and post. The metric I would probably use is a simple ratio of average attendance/number of students, so a team like Furman would have a fairly high number, while some schools would have fractions. Montana, as a quick point of reference, would have a ratio of 1.66, with an average attendance (NCAA has updated numbers through last week) of 25,947 / student enrollment of 15,669.

Edit: Also happy to do this with "metro area" populations for the top teams, as this might really indicate where football is truly the lifeblood.

[Twentysix]

I agree, that is a stat I doubt many FBS schools could match. Tennessee has 27000 students and house over 100k at their stadium. That's proportional but rare.

Lol Minnesota has 50,000+ Enrolled and is in Minneapolis whos metro area is nearly 4 million. And typically draw right under 50,000.

[JMUNJ08]

If we include FBS I would have to throw Wake Forest in. I know they have an enrollment around 3-5K but get 30K for games at least right? anyone more in the know confirm that?

[Bison Fan in NW MN]

Lol Minnesota has 50,000+ Enrolled and is in Minneapolis whos metro area is nearly 4 million. And typically draw right under 50,000.


The Bison have more students at their games compared to the Gophers. I'm basing this on the Bison/Gopher game 2 weeks ago......small student section at TCF.

[Sader87]

Holy Cross with an enrollment of roughly 2,900 (2,400 in my day in the 80's) regularly had crowds of 15,000 and sometimes 20,000K+ when we had scholarships....crowds are now more in the 10K area, occasionally around 15,000 like the UMass game this year under the lights.

[JMUNJ08]

Spot check:

Wake Forest enrollment: 6,830 (undergraduates + graduates). Also of note:



Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_Forest_University (I know, I know, but these are sourced variously to university links, and wanted to include that quote)

Attendance: 30,594
Source: http://web1.ncaa.org/mfb/2011/Internet/attendance/fbs_attendance.html

Ratio: 4.48 attendees/student
Source: maths


Edit: Would note Rice averages 25,317 with 5,670 students (4.47 attendees/student) and Tulsa averages 22,902 with only 4,165 students (5.50 attendees/student). So Tulsa is probably the winner for FBS.

Undergrads at 4,400...I was pretty close since schools look at their undergrad population...WF has over 1/3 of their total population as post-grads...but thanks for the spot check! Knew the BCS part but wasn't sure on all of FBS!

[whoanellie]

In my topic question was, does anyone have links to a ranking list on FCS enrollment schools?
I understand NCAA has attendance stats link, I was looking for a schools "actual" enrollment. I am sure
these numbers are fluid. I was trying to compare participation. Thanks but no thanks on why.
Of course enrollment and surrounding elements have everything to do with attendance. So do visiting teams and
how they travel. I was just looking for a link that ranked enrollment of FCS 1-aa school's not 1-A.
I can't believe it's not in the Phil Steele 2011 publication. bifocals and a 8X lupe and I can decypher half of it!!!

[HailSzczur]

Nova's averaging 9305 per "home game".
At 6335 undergrad plus 3200 post grads we come .98. We have a long was to go before we reach any of these kind of numbers

While its nowhere near

[Squealofthepig]

Deleted.

[FurmanWins!!]

Yeah those numbers look accurate thanks for posting, unfortunately Furman's attendance from last year was way down since we were 5-6, but hopefully if Chris Forcier keeps playing lights out ball we will be back way up attendance wise this season ;)

[JmuSkinsfan]

OK, here's the top 10 (highest and lowest); enrollment data was only available for 2009/2010, so I used data for attendance for the 09/10 year (I'm an apples to apples guy, sorry).

Sources: http://nces.ed.gov, http://web1.ncaa.org/mfb/2009/Internet/attendance/fcs_attendance.html

Top 10 - number given is ratio of average attendance/enrollment
5.95 Wofford College
3.82 Virginia Military Institute
3.07 Furman University
2.87 University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
2.80 South Carolina State University
2.78 Citadel Military College of South Carolina
2.75 Lafayette College
2.42 College of the Holy Cross
2.35 Jackson State University
2.14 Colgate University

Bottom 10
0.12 Portland State University
0.13 Georgetown University
0.14 Duquesne University
0.18 Stony Brook University
0.19 Drake University
0.20 Columbia University in the City of New York
0.21 SUNY at Albany
0.21 Central Connecticut State University
0.22 Weber State University
0.23 University of California-Davis

Those are based off last year, though ... although it's probably close to what will come out this year. JMU was at 98% capacity last year but averaged 15,800 or so .. this year we are at 102% (25,400 avg. in 24,877 capacity)

[DFW HOYA]

Bottom 10
0.13 Georgetown University


You're counting a significant grad and professional student population of over 8,000 that doesn't even step foot on the main campus until graduation, along with the smallest I-AA "stadium" in the nation. The MSF was at 104% capacity last season and 100% so far this season.

But if you had a ratio of seats to surface parking spaces, it would be clearly at the bottom of the list.

[Sader87]

Finally a football stat (besides GTown) that the PL can crow about!!! Three in the Top 10!!!

[Tribal]

W&M sold out all but one home game last season with a stadium capacity of 12,200. About 7,500 students if you include grad/law and 5,800 undergrads give or take. Wofford has an exceptionally low undergrad population but I don't have a clue about their attendance.

[whoanellie]

JMU does have it all going on and is a growing & solid program. an elite FCS program I did go to Phil Steele and took their numbers and matched them up vs percentage of capacity
those HBCU "classic" games really have suspect results:
Those are based off last year, though ... although it's probably close to what will come out this year. JMU was at 98% capacity last year but averaged 15,800 or so .. this year we are at 102% (25,400 avg. in 24,877 capacity)

[seantaylor]

GSU averaging 21,000 with 21,000 enrollment. Nice and neat, there. We have a really weak home schedule thanks to Sammy Baker, so our attendance numbers will probably drop a little.