Purdue saw its attendance drop 28 percent from last season. (Getty)
Major college football home attendance in 2014 dipped to its lowest average in 14 years as many schools continue to struggle to fill seats.
Football Bowl Subdivision crowds for home games averaged 43, 483 fans per game, down 4 percent from 2013 and the lowest since 42, 631 in 2000, according to a CBSSports.com analysis of NCAA attendance data. This marked the sixth straight season crowds were below 46, 000 since they peaked at 46, 456 in 2008.
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The data counts only home games and not neutral-site venues. Figures represent the announced crowd totals schools reported to the NCAA and not necessarily actual attendance.
This was the first year the NCAA counted attendance from six new FBS schools: Georgia Southern, Old Dominion, Charlotte, Appalachian State, Georgia State and Texas San Antonio. But even when removing those teams from the calculation, the average for returning FBS schools (44, 544) would be the lowest since 2002.
The good news: 72 percent of the top 25 attendance leaders experienced increases or remained the same (all of the top 25 were from Power Five conferences or Notre Dame). The bad news: Only 48 percent of the remaining Power Five schools maintained or increased their crowd average, and many schools in smaller conferences continued to decline.
Ohio State, which averaged 106, 296 fans, ended Michigan's 16-year run atop the attendance leaders. Michigan dropped to third at 104, 909 behind No. 2 Texas A&M (105, 123).
The biggest increases among Power Five schools: Texas A&M (21 percent), Maryland (14 percent), LSU (11 percent), Mississippi State (10 percent), Rutgers (9 percent), Florida State (9 percent) and UCLA (nine percent). Texas A&M, LSU and Mississippi State expanded their stadiums this season. Maryland and Rutgers were new Big Ten members.
The biggest decreases in the Power Five: Purdue (28 percent), Pittsburgh (17 percent), Virginia (15 percent), Kansas (10 percent), Arizona State (9 percent) and Oklahoma State (8 percent).
