The NCAA this month released its attendance report for the 2011 season, and Sports Business Journal recently released three-year averages for each conference. It should come as no surprise that Clemson, Florida State and Virginia Tech were the league leaders, in that order. Overall, according to the NCAA's numbers, here's how the ACC stacked up in 2011 compared to the rest of the country's accumulated attendance (of course you have to take into account stadium size, and the difference in number of home games):
No. 15 Clemson (547,635)
No. 16 Florida State (544,893)
No. 28 Virginia Tech (397,398)
No. 32 NC State (394,008)
No. 33 North Carolina (392,000)
No. 39 Miami (340,576)
No. 41 Georgia Tech (337,622)
No. 43 Virginia (335,582)
No. 51 Maryland (296,484)
No. 65 Wake Forest (223,769)
No. 68 Boston College (214,255)
No. 79 Duke (170,748)
Because of the differences in stadium size and number of home games, though, it's probably more beneficial to measure within the league, and look at whether attendance has increased or fallen off at each respective program. The Sports Business Journal's three-year snapshot helps do that:
Clemson
2011 78,234
2010 77,469
2009 75,793
Florida State
2011 77,842
2010 71,270
2009 74,345
Virginia Tech
2011 66,233
2010 66,233
2009 66,233
NC State
2011 56,287
2010 56,877
2009 56,422
North Carolina
2011 56,000
2010 58,250
2009 56,607
Miami
2011 48,654
2010 52,575
2009 47,551
Georgia Tech
2011 48,232
2010 48,232
2009 51,584
Virginia
2011 47,940
2010 45,459
2009 47,986
Maryland
2011 42,355
2010 39,168
2009 44,452
Boston College
2011 35,709
2010 38,369
2009 35,716
Wake Forest
2011 31,967
2010 30,474
2009 31,791
Duke
2011 24,393
2010 28,750
2009 26,314