Got ahead of work this week and was wondering how the FBS conference title games have stacked up historically in fan support. Obviously the reporting methods are inconsistent but it was still an interesting exercise; I excluded 2020 for obvious reasons. See rank below, where prudent I split apart a conference into two for major changes.

SEC: 74,998. The clear king, has never drawn below 71K.
(ACC Charlotte games: 69,646. Clemson has made five of nine here, that probably helps)
Big 12: Only conference besides to SEC to have never drawn below 60K. The Missouri games combined averaged 1,300 more than the Texas ones.
ACC Overall: 64,338. Charlotte seems to be ideal with an NFL stadium and many nearby schools.
Big Ten: 62,506. They've basically been at stadium capacity the last five games so they'd benefit greatly if the Bears build a new and larger domed stadium as a new venue.
(ACC Florida games: 56,377. Jacksonville/Tampa hosted the first five games with Orlando randomly getting one, but between the six they had FSU just once and The U none so that definitely hurt)
(Pac 12 Santa Clara games with Stanford/campus games: 53,408. Conference definitely drew better on campus or when they had a local Stanford team make it)
Pac 12 Overall: 48,177. Meh numbers, Vegas might be boost things a bit. I get that playing on campus looks a bit small-time against other power conferences but still.
(Pac 12 Other Santa Clara games: 41,637. Only a sample size of four, but still pretty lousy)

(C-USA Pre-2013: 36,739. Great numbers until that point)
AAC: 35,631. Not shocking that it's the best of the current non-power conferences by a big margin.
(WAC: 28,896. I forgot they had three Vegas games in the 90s, wanted to include for the record. One drew just 12,706 so that weighs down the average)
C-USA Overall: 26,217. Boosted by the three games UCF hosted drawing over 40K each.
(MAC Campus: 25,487. Marshall had five of seven, that definitely helped)
MWC: 24,880. Pretty consistent numbers overall, Boise has hosted four of seven.
MAC Overall: 21,307. The second-most played championship only after the SEC.
(MAC Detroit: 19,478. Doesn't look great on TV with such a big stadium, but usually draws alright when a Michigan team or Toledo are playing).
(C-USA Since 2013: 17,010. Holy cow, what a nosedive since realignment)
Sun Belt: 16,656. Only a sample size of two at App State but I thought it would've been higher. Maybe there was some bad weather?

Charlotte has benefitted because of Clemson. If Florida State and/or Miami ever got their act together, the ACC Championship absolutely would work in Florida. They had 72,749 the first year in Jacksonville when Florida State played in it. But when Wake Forest and Boston College are winning the Atlantic Division, attendance will predictably go down.

(07-30-2021 03:21 PM)schmolik Wrote:  Charlotte has benefitted because of Clemson. If Florida State and/or Miami ever got their act together, the ACC Championship absolutely would work in Florida. They had 72,749 the first year in Jacksonville when Florida State played in it. But when Wake Forest and Boston College are winning the Atlantic Division, attendance will predictably go down.

It's also a matter of principle. A neutral site CCG in theory should be an easy location for most of the fan bases to get to, whether by car (from campus or major alumni cities) or plane, so the crowd is close to an even split by team if the fan bases support their teams around the same level. Charlotte has a big airport and is a pretty easy drive for the seven schools in NC/SC/VA. Having the game in Florida is only really good for the in state teams, and having a situation where attendance is either crappy or you have a very partisan crowd isn't the best outcome when Charlotte is available.