UCLA is unbeaten. So why is the Rose Bowl full of empty seats? - USA Today

Halloween was frightening for college football attendance.

As reported by USA TODAY, images from Oct. 31 games circulated across social media featuring stadiums filled with sparse crowds. Historic venues for schools from Penn State to Florida State to Oklahoma sat relatively empty.

The numbers back that up. A USA TODAY Sports analysis found that in Week 9, when most games fell on Oct. 31, NCAA Division I FBS home crowds were 8.8% smaller than those same home teams’ 2025 average, by far the worst week of the season.

One such school facing the bleak returns at the gate has been undefeated No. 5 UCLA. Against Nevada last Saturday, the school posted its lowest season attendance of the season – filling just 24,611 of the 81,258 Rose Bowl seats.

The Bruins’ crosstown rival No. 17 USC had a much better Halloween night, announcing a sellout crowd against then-No. 2 Ohio State. However, those 70,000-plus fans were a bright spot for a school whose attendance is otherwise trending down this season.

The Los Angeles-area schools have also been on a downward trend in attendance for much of the past decade, although it’s worth noting that the Trojans’ LA Memorial Coliseum home now seats under 80,000, down from more than 93,000 before a 2018-19 renovation.

Still, both schools' average reported attendance has fallen by roughly 10% compared with the same point last season. UCLA is down 11%, partly because of a new counting method; USC is down 10%. Among schools ranked in the Nov. 1 US LBM Coaches Poll Top 25, only SMU has experienced a larger year-over-year decline, at 14%.

But a closer look suggests LA’s crowd problem is narrower than the viral photos imply – and at UCLA, partly a matter of how fans are counted.

“You could be really competitive on the field, but if you're lacking in fan experience, if you are lacking in the emotional connections, you're really going to struggle to sustain that attendance,” Douglas Manning, an assistant professor of sport management at the University of San Francisco, told USA TODAY Sports. “So, in terms of sport marketing, you've got to have UCLA and USC look beyond the wins and losses and focus on building relationships.”

He added that Southern California is a particularly competitive market for entertainment, noting that fans have a bevy of options from a multitude of sports, going to the mountains, walking along the beach, or heading out to restaurants or bars.

While Halloween night led to some scary sights for schools, attendance is otherwise reasonably healthy across FBS programs.

Many schools post regular sellouts, including blue bloods like Alabama, LSU and Notre Dame.

However, UCLA hasn’t filled even half the Rose Bowl for any of its five home games this season. Among Power Four schools, the only two others with home games below 50% capacity are Duke – traditionally a basketball-first school – and the Bruins’ former Pac-12 pal Stanford.

Both California schools left the Pac-12 in 2024 – UCLA for the Big Ten, Stanford for the ACC – and Manning sees that upheaval as part of the problem.

“I’d like to ask some hard questions about the new conferences,” he said, citing “these long-time generational rivalries that disappeared with the movement to the Big Ten.

“We had generations of fans that had the Pac-10, the Pac-12 rivalries."

But realignment alone doesn’t explain the declines. USC and California, which left the Pac-12 alongside UCLA and Stanford, are drawing about the same as they did before the pandemic. UCLA and Stanford are each down about 40% from their 2017-19 averages, though UCLA’s figure partly reflects its new counting method.

If there’s one saving grace for UCLA this season, it’s that the school changed how it reports attendance figures: for 2026, announced attendance is based on tickets scanned, whereas previous seasons counted tickets distributed.  

That means that some of UCLA’s dip this year could be due to the accounting difference. Scan counts are public for two 2025 games: about 27,800 against Utah, according to a Los Angeles Times report that cited figures from UCLA athletic officials, and about 28,000 against Penn State, per a public information request from fan blog The Mighty Bruin.

Four of UCLA’s five home games this season topped both. The exception was the Oct. 31 game against Nevada.

Still, the accounting change doesn’t explain everything. For instance, UCLA’s recent attendance trends are far from the 76,700 fans the school averaged in 2014, a year when the Bruins finished No. 10 in the Coaches Poll with a 10-3 record.

“Once fans stop attending games, that’s when they develop new habits,” Manning said.

Assuming attendance doesn't substantially pick up for UCLA's final two home games, it will mark the third straight season of declining reported attendance. If the Bruins draw their current season average of 31,460 against Illinois on Nov. 13, they would need to report at least 72,215 fans against USC in their season finale to surpass their 2025 average, which was counted under the old, more generous method.

UCLA hasn’t drawn that many for a home game against USC since 2014, when 82,431 fans visited the Rose Bowl. The four rivalry games the Bruins have hosted since, not counting the fanless 2020 game, averaged 64,648.

USC’s attendance dip ties closely with a lack of marquee opponents to open its season. The Trojans announced two sellouts – against Oregon and Ohio State, although the actual reported attendance for both games varied by nearly 5,000.

Meanwhile, their other four games are below their season average of 61,604. That includes their first three home games, against San Jose State, Fresno State and Louisiana-Lafayette, all non-Power Four teams. Another game, against fellow Big Ten foe Washington, also drew below their average.

If the average holds, it will be USC’s lowest attendance season since 2021. The school has one more home game – against 2-6 Maryland – but it could come into that with a higher ranking if it upsets No. 3 Indiana on Nov. 14.

Then the Trojans travel across town to face UCLA at the Rose Bowl on Nov. 28.

“I’ve really got November 28th circled,” Manning said. “This is going to be a barometer for me.”

He added: “I expect to see a great turnout.”

Methodology: USA TODAY used Stats Perform attendance data for most of this analysis. UCLA and USC’s historical attendance averages used team media guide figures. Stadium capacities come fromCollegeFootballData, except for UCLA and Duke, which came from the schools themselves.