The Michigan Wolverines gridiron football team (and their fans) once again can boast of having the highest average attendance in all of American collegiate sports. The school is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which is 44 miles west of Detroit, and has a population of around 114,000 (2000 census figure). The Ann Arbor campus has an enrollment of 42,042 (26,083 undergraduate students).
The Wolverines play in Michigan Stadium, which was built in 1927. It’s original capacity was 72,000; today it seats 107,501, and will be expanded to 110,000 by 2010. The stadium was standing room only last year… the Wolverines drew 110,264 per game in 2007, at 102.6% capacity.
Michigan played 8 games there last season, and were 5-3, the first loss coming to the tiny Appalachian State, Mountaineers, of Boone, North Carolina. Perhaps the Wolverines never fully recovered from that loss (one of the all-time biggest college football upsets. Below is a Sports Illustrated cover from last September- Click on the icon…
Michigan finished 9-4, and were ranked #18 in the final 2007 AP Poll.
Thanks to the NCAA site, for the attendance figures: {Click here for article; Click here for all 119 teams’ attendance figures (Note: numbers 120-138 on the list are from games teams played at alternate or secondary locations) [pdf file]}.
Thanks to CBS Sports site and Elite Deals site. Thanks to the [Harrisburg, Pennsylvania] Patriot-News site. Michigan map originally from Wikipedia.
