Ole Miss was among the seven SEC schools with a drop in average attendance from '18 to '19GETTY IMAGES
This season's average attendance at SEC home football games was the "lowest it has been in a long time," according to Josh Vitale of the MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER. The 14 SEC schools' 102 home games brought in a total of 7,418,914 fans, which is 82,761 fewer than '18 (7,501,675) despite there being two fewer games on the schedule. The SEC averaged 72,735 fans in '19, a decrease of 2,282 from last season, and the conference's lowest total since '01. Vitale notes the "drop in attendance wasn't uniform," as half of the conference's schools "actually increased their average home attendance" year-over-year. Missouri "made the largest jump," both in terms of percentage of capacity filled and average attendance. Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, South Carolina and Texas A&M also "saw their attendance numbers go up this season." The seven schools that "experienced a decrease in attendance" were Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Tennessee and Vanderbilt. The drop that Alabama experienced was "minor," as the school went from averaging 101,562 at Bryant-Denny Stadium to 101,117 this year. Others were "significant," as Arkansas "suffered the biggest drop." Auburn Associate AD/External Affairs Evin Beck said that on the year-end surveys the school sends out to season-ticket holders, one of the "most important things to fans is kickoff time." The seven teams with increased attendance this season "combined to play 13 home games that kicked off" at 12:00pm CT, while the seven teams with decreased attendance "combined to play 14" (MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER, 12/23).
