Top Ten Small Colleges with Great Football Crowds

Top Ten Small Colleges with Great Football Crowds

Written by: Annie Reznik

In describing “the perfect school,” the majority of students I counsel describe a desire for as one student put it: “a fall, football feel.”  More than the sport itself, students are drawn to the camaraderie and unity that comes from rooting for the team on a crisp fall afternoon.

I encourage students to quantify desirable characteristics so that they are able to evaluate and compare institutions with ease. To quantify the “fall, football feel,” we began by using the average attendance per football game for 2010 as the metric for delineating between schools. But, predictably, we ended up gauging total enrollment rather than the quality of a football crowd.

This student preferred schools with fewer than 10,000 students and my personal experience has taught me that it is as exciting and energizing to be part of a crowd at schools like Princeton, Army, Vanderbilt, or Delaware as it is at Maryland, Michigan, or Purdue. So, we developed a ratio of 2010 average per-game football attendance relative to undergraduate enrollment. Ten schools with fewer than 10,000 undergraduates emerged with a better crowd size relative to enrollment than the universities boasting the highest football attendance per game. And, 45 institutions exceed the national average ratio (.93) of attendance relative to enrollment at schools with fewer than 10,000 students.

Check out the Top Ten Small Colleges with Great Football Crowds below and for some comparison, I included a chart that shows ratios for the NCAA’s Top 10 Highest Football Attendance (per-game average) below as well. Please contact College Guidance Coach for more information on the “Crowd to Enrollment Ratio.”