April provided us our last taste of anything resembling an actual college football game until September, and with that in mind, fans across the country flocked to their favorite schools’ spring games. There were strange scoring systems and otherwise altered formats that made for a confused approximation of football in a number of places, but hey, this is all we had left.
Final 2013 spring football game attendance rankings: The SEC wins everything
The state of Alabama proved to be the center of spring football enthusiasm in 2013.
Mike Zarrilli
No one showed up to these contests like fans in the SEC; seven of the top 10 schools in reported spring attendance hail from that league, making the list look like recruiting class rankings on national signing day. Auburn claimed the attendance title this year, as fans congregated not only to check out new head coach Gus Malzahn, but to celebrate and roll the trees at Toomer’s Corner one last time.
Alabama wasn’t far behind, and like Auburn, several schools rode the enthusiasm that comes with a new coaching staff to impressive attendance figures. That includes Kentucky, which had more than 50,000 spectators on hand, easily setting a new school record.
The final attendance numbers:
| School | Claimed Attendance |
| Auburn | 83,401 |
| Alabama | 78,315 |
| Tennessee | 61,076 |
| Nebraska | 60,174 |
| Arkansas | 51,088 |
| Kentucky | 50,831 |
| Texas | 46,000 |
| Texas A&M | 45,212 |
| Georgia | 45,113 |
| Ohio State | 37,643 |
| Oregon | 36,588 |
| South Carolina | 35,218 |
| Louisville | 33,000 |
| Notre Dame | 31,652 |
| Clemson | 30,000 |
| Virginia Tech | 30,000 |
| Oklahoma | 29,200 |
| LSU | 28,000 |
| Ole Miss | 28,000 |
| Penn State | 28,000 |
| Florida State | 27,500 |
| N.C. State | 27,500 |
| Michigan State | 22,500 |
| Mississippi State | 21,000 |
| Rutgers | 21,000 |
| UCLA | 20,000 |
| Missouri | 18,384 |
| Michigan | 18,000 |
| Kansas State | 16,383 |
| Texas Tech | 16,116 |
| Iowa | 16,000 |
| USC | 15,284 |
| Iowa State | 15,000 |
| North Carolina | 15,000 |
| Oklahoma State | 15,000 |
| Vanderbilt | 14,000 |
| Wisconsin | 12,050 |
| BYU | 12,000 |
| Colorado | 10,244 |
| Boise State | 9,146 |
| Utah | 8,633 |
| Minnesota | 8,400 |
| Washington State | 8,340 |
| Oregon State | 8,263 |
| Maryland | 8,200 |
| West Virginia | 8,000 |
| Washington | 7,000 |
| Western Kentucky | 6,500 |
| Purdue | 6,427 |
| Arizona State | 6,300 |
| East Carolina | 6,294 |
| California | 5,831 |
| Louisiana Tech | 5,700 |
| Duke | 5,213 |
| Marshall | 5,115 |
| Georgia Tech | 5,000 |
| Middle Tennessee | 5,000 |
| Texas State | 4,608 |
| South Florida | 4,606 |
| Nevada | 4,501 |
| Stanford | 4,350 |
| Wake Forest | 4,200 |
| Arizona | 4,095 |
| Syracuse | 3,822 |
| Pittsburgh | 3,642 |
| Temple | 3,530 |
| Baylor | 3,500 |
| UConn | 3,200 |
| Colorado State | 3,000 |
| Utah State | 3,000 |
| UTEP | 2,581 |
| UTSA | 2,506 |
| South Alabama | 2,281 |
| Illinois | 2,100 |
| UNLV | 2,100 |
| Western Michigan | 2,045 |
| Cincinnati | 2,000 |
| Southern Mississippi | 2,000 |
| Georgia State | 1,800 |
| Tulsa | 1,200 |
| Hawaii | 900 |
| Akron | 500 |
Nebraska led the way in the Big Ten by a wide margin, while Texas and Oregon topped the Big 12 and Pac-12. Virginia Tech and Clemson led the ACC with attendance figures around 30,000, though future league member Louisville bested both of them.
At the other end of the spectrum, there are the likes of Stanford, Arizona, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Illinois and Cincinnati, all of which reported fewer than 5,000 fans at their games.
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