PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The success of the American Athletic Conference on the football field has been well-documented in 2015, including four teams in last week’s College Football Playoff Selection Committee rankings and impressive results against some of the nations’ top programs.
The conference and its member schools have been equally impressive at the turnstiles and in terms of television viewership this season. Average attendance at American Athletic Conference home games has
increased by 10 percent from the same point in the 2014 season, while the conference has seen
a 36-percent increase in the number of games that attracted at least one million television viewers.
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Temple’s Oct. 31 game against Notre Dame was played in front of a
school-record crowd of 69,280 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. That attendance broke the previous mark of 69,176 on Sept. 5 for the Owls’ season-opener against Penn State.
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Memphis drew 60,241 at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium for the Tigers’ Oct. 17 nonconference game against Mississippi. The Tigers had
55,212 in attendance – a school-record for a conference game – for the Nov. 7 game against Navy.
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Cincinnati has set its on-campus attendance record three times this season at the newly renovated Nippert Stadium. The Bearcats drew
a season-high 40,124 for their Oct. 24 matchup against UConn.
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East Carolina drew a season-high 50,514 for its Sept. 26 win against Virginia Tech at Dowdy-Ficklin Stadium. The Pirates have had at least 40,000 in attendance for four of their five home games.
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Navy, which is in its first year in the American Athletic Conference,
drew a season-high 35,778 against SMU for its final home game of the season. It was Navy’s largest crowd at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium since the 2013 season.
Seven American Athletic Conference schools (UCF, Cincinnati, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, Navy, Temple) have averaged better than 30,000 per game this season, while three schools (East Carolina, Memphis, Temple) have averaged more than 40,000.
More than two million people (2,013,120) have attended American Athletic Conference home games this season.
On the television front, with two weeks remaining in the regular season,
The American has had 15 games that were viewed by at least one million people. By comparison, the conference had 11 such games in the entire 2014 season.
Nearly six million television viewers nationally watched Temple’s game against Notre Dame on ABC. The game averaged 5,977,000 viewers despite competition from Game 4 of the World Series.
In Philadelphia, the game drew a
17.6 local rating which, by far, is ABC’s highest recorded rating for a regular-season college football game in the nation’s No. 4 designated market area. The game also provided the backdrop for ESPN College GameDay, which was staged Saturday morning from Independence Mall.
Memphis’ win against Mississippi attracted a
22.6 rating and a 39 share in the Memphis DMA, while the Tigers have also earned local ratings of 12.0 or better for their conference games against Cincinnati and Tulsa on ESPN.
Notable Attendance Increases at American Athletic Conference Schools
School 2015 Avg. 2014 Avg. Pct. Change
Cincinnati 37,096 32,330 14.7
Houston 32,592 29,101 12.0
Memphis 46,547 33,342 39.6
Temple 51,251 23,792 115.4
American 32,470 29,744 10.0
Averages are through 12 weeks of the 2015 season compared with 12 weeks of the 2014 season
Games With One Million Television Viewers
Game Network Viewers
Notre Dame at Temple ABC 5,977,380
Virginia Tech at East Carolina ABC 3,720,725
Mississippi at Memphis ABC 3,310,625
USF at Florida State ESPN 2,215,728
Baylor at SMU ESPN 2,003,279
Penn State at Temple ESPN 1,912,493
UConn at Missouri ESPN 1,902,664
Cincinnati at Brigham Young ESPN 1,467,515
Miami (Fla.) at Cincinnati ESPN 1,347,663
Cincinnati at Memphis ESPN 1,241,777
UConn at Brigham Young ESPN2 1,239,948
Memphis at Tulsa ESPN 1,215,920
Memphis at USF ESPN2 1,154,610
Temple at SMU ESPN2 1,079,524
East Carolina at Florida ESPN2 1,045,991