Fans wait for the start of a game between the Washington Huskies and the Michigan Wolverines in 2024. (Jennifer Buchanan / The Seattle Times)
Skip Ad
By
Jon Wilner
Bay Area News Group
Back in the roiling summer of 2022, UCLA officials leaned into the opportunity to boost home attendance as one of several reasons for leaving the Pac-12 and joining the Big Ten. After all, the Bruins would play three or four home games per year against Midwestern schools with thousands of alumni in Southern California. They would leap at the chance to see their favorite team in person and help fill the half-vacant Rose Bowl.
But two years into the new era, the situation hasn’t unfolded as the Bruins hoped. In fact, their home attendance has declined since leaving the Pac-12.
In that regard, they are not alone.
An analysis of post-realignment attendance data by the Hotline revealed the Pac-12’s departed schools collectively have experienced a slight uptick in average crowds since joining their new conferences. But several, like UCLA, are drawing fewer fans. Turns out, winning has a greater impact on ticket sales over time than opponents or conference affiliation. Go figure.
Before we plunge into the numbers, one note on the process:
The Hotline waited for two seasons of realignment to play out before examining attendance data so that a home rivalry game, played every other year, was included for each Pac-12 legacy school.
We compared the average attendance (per game) from the two post-realignment seasons (2024-25) to the attendance from the two pre-realignment seasons (2022-23).
(Attendance figures were taken from the industry website D1.ticker, which aggregates the data published on the school websites.)
Here we go.
● The 10 departed schools increased attendance by an average of 982 fans per game in the two post-realignment seasons compared with their final two years in the Pac-12.
Arizona State, Colorado, Oregon, USC and Washington experienced upticks, while Arizona, Cal, Stanford and UCLA saw average attendance decline.
Utah experienced no change: The Utes packed Rice-Eccles Stadium across two conferences and four seasons.
● The largest increase, by far, came from Arizona State (6,023 per game), which rose from nowhere to claim the Big 12 championship in 2024.
The Sun Devils averaged 45,691 fans in their final two years in the Pac-12, when they were 6-18, and 51,714 fans in the first two years in the Big 12, when they were 19-8. That’s an increase of 13.2%.
Advertising
Skip Ad
Their average crowds over the four years, chronologically: 43,081, 48,301, 48,984 and 54,444.
● The largest decrease, by far, came from Stanford (4,489 per game), which fielded a sub-.500 team in all four seasons.
The Cardinal averaged 31,592 fans in the two Pac-12 years and 27,103 in the two ACC years, suggesting there was little appetite to watch the likes of Virginia Tech, Boston College, Pittsburgh and Wake Forest.
Of note: Cal’s average crowd size decreased by 1,558 fans during two years in the ACC, compared with the final two years in the Pac-12. The Bears’ on-field performance was slightly better in 2024-25.
● UCLA’s attendance dropped by 2,728 per game after joining the Big Ten — and despite hosting several teams with large alumni bases and national followings (Penn State, Nebraska and Iowa).
Across town, USC experienced an increase of 4,398 fans per game in the Coliseum even though the Trojans’ win total decreased slightly.
The prime driver was the 2024 season, which produced an upturn of 5,000 per game — an indication of Big Ten-related excitement — but the average crowd in 2025 was close to pre-realignment levels.
● Colorado’s increase of 3,528 per game post-realignment, the third-largest behind Arizona State and USC, is rooted in the fervor of the Deion Sanders era (2023-25), not the lineup of Big 12 visitors.
The Buffaloes actually averaged fewer fans after joining the Big 12 than they did in their final season in the Pac-12, but the crowds were so low in 2022, due to an abysmal season, that their pre-realignment average was weighed down.
Here are the averages for each season in Folsom Field, chronologically: 42,847, 53,180, 52,514 and 50,469.
● Oregon’s post-realignment crowds increased by 3,420 per game and Washington’s by 2,678, constituting modest post-realignment upturns of 6.2% and 4.1%, respectively, for the Big Ten’s duo in the Pacific Northwest.In Eugene, where the Ducks won at a high level throughout the four seasons covered in our research, the increase coincides directly with joining the Big Ten.
But in Seattle, the increase seems more connected to success than conference. The greatest change unfolded in 2023, when the Huskies made a run at the national championship.
Here are their average crowds from the final two years in the Pac-12 and the first two in the Big Ten (chronologically): 62,933, 68,814, 68,865 and 68,238.
● Arizona’s attendance dropped by 1,502 per game after joining the Big 12, with the 2025 season producing the lowest average crowd (41,782) across the four years.
The Wildcats have been inconsistent, with sub-.500 seasons in 2022 and 2024 and first-class years in 2023 and 2025.
● And what of the two Pac-12 holdovers, Washington State and Oregon State, which played a slew of opponents from the Group of Five? Attendance dropped for both, although perhaps not as precipitously as expected, especially in Corvallis, Ore.
WSU’s crowds decreased by 2,634 fans per game (9.7%) in the two years following the breakup of the Pac-12, while OSU’s average dropped by 1,262 per game (3.7%).
Lastly, here are the raw numbers for each school, listed with the average crowd in 2022-23, the average crowd in 2024-25 and the percentage change:
- Arizona State: 45,691/51,714/+13.2%
- Colorado: 47,964/51,492/+7.4%
- USC: 65,279/69,677/+6.7%
- Oregon: 55,423/58,843/+6.2%
- Washington: 65/874/68,552/+4.1%
- Utah: 52,278/52,332/+0.1%
- Oregon State: 34,234/32,972/-3.7%
- Arizona: 45,765/44,263/-3.2%
- Cal: 38,640/37,082/-4.0%
- UCLA: 44,772/42,044/-6.1%
- Washington State: 27,104/24,470/-9.7%
- Stanford: 31,592/27,103/-14.2%
Jon Wilner: jwilner@bayareanewsgroup.com. Jon Wilner has been covering college sports for decades and is an AP top-25 football and basketball voter as well as a Heisman Trophy voter. He was named Beat Writer of the Year in 2013 by the Football Writers Association of America for his coverage of the Pac-12, won first place for feature writing in 2016 in the Associated Press Sports Editors writing contest and is a five-time APSE honoree.
