Coming off one of the most successful seasons in program history, the Clemson Tigers saw the largest crowd attend its spring game during the second weekend of April. With an estimated 50,000 fans coming out to see the defending ACC champs in action, Clemson narrowly edged division rival Florida State for the top spot in the early going of the spring football game attendance leader board.
If history is any indication, Clemson will not remain on top for very long unless Mother Nature gets involved. Ohio State set the record last year with nearly 100,000 coming out to see the defending national champions. Urban Meyer is hoping to cross the 100,000-fan barrier this year. Alabama, Tennessee, Nebraska and Penn State are all traditionally big draws for spring football games as well, and they each have spring games still to be played.
When evaluating spring game attendance it is important to keep a few things in mind. First, every school handles the number differently. Some keep an actual count, while others merely give a rough estimate. Some do not even bother to keep track at all, which is why not every spring game attendance can be accounted for. Second, some spring games are held in a different venue than the football stadium. For example, Stanford held a spring scrimmage in a soccer stadium with a much smaller capacity. So take some of these numbers for what they are with all of that in mind.
Here are the most up-to-date spring game attendance numbers as of April 12, 2016 as provided by each school (note: schools with no attendance tracked are not included, as are schools that did not respond to College Football Talk via email on the subject);
- Clemson - 50,000
- Florida State - 49,913
- Florida - 46,000
- Auburn - 45,723 (read more about Auburn’s attendance)
- Oklahoma - 42,436
- Michigan - 35,000
- South Carolina - 32,916
- Texas A&M - 27,412
- BYU - 18,000
- Boise State - 6,100
- Colorado - 5,100
- UNLV - 2,800
- Stanford - 2,500
- Wake Forest - 2,100
- Nevada - 600
- Air Force - 500
All updates to this year’s spring game attendance database can be viewed HERE, and you can break the data down by conference.