The NFL always gets so much credit as a growing robust business, but the financials behind college football aren't published as often. I just had a chance to look at some data released by the National Football Foundation and I thought it was worth passing on some of these incredible numbers.
- 49.6 million fans watched an NCAA football game at the 639 schools this past year. That's an increase of nearly 3 percent from the prior season.
- Thirteen FBS teams played in front of more than a million people on the season (Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Florida, LSU, Texas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Georgia).
- Four FBS teams saw increases of more than 10,000 fans from last year (Louisville, Northwestern, Rice and Eastern Michigan).
- College football has 103 million fans, 61 percent of which are men. Twenty five percent of the total college football fan base has a household income of $100,000 or more and 32 percent of the total fan base is married.
- CBS' coverage of the of the Iron Bowl, the matchup between Auburn and Alabama on Nov. 26, was the highest rated college football game of the 2010 season on any network.
- Ten bowl games produced ratings jumps of more than 20 percent, including the Insight Bowl — between Iowa and Missouri — which saw a ratings jump of 460 percent. Forty three percent of America watched at least one of the 35 bowl games.
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