(CNN) – Spring football isn’t just a southern tradition anymore, not as long as Ohio State keeps drawing big crowds.
The defending national champion obliterated its own national record for spring game attendance on Saturday, drawing 99,391 fans to Ohio Stadium to watch the Buckeyes play a glorified scrimmage that featured only one of the team’s three star quarterbacks (Cardale Jones) because of injuries.
Several other OSU players were held out or saw limited action, but that didn’t stop fans from coming out in droves to get an early glimpse of the presumptive favorite to win the 2015-16 title.
Saturday’s attendance topped the previous best of 95,722, which OSU set in 2009, according to Kevin Ryan of 247Sports. The Buckeyes, Nebraska and Penn State are the only schools outside of the South to register a spring game crowd of more than 75,000, per Ryan. Prior to Ohio State’s record-shattering feat Saturday, Nebraska had the highest-attended spring game of the year, drawing 76,881 attendees on April 11.
Alabama has been the gold standard of late in the spring game attendance department, posting the top figure in three of the previous five seasons (with Auburn taking the title in 2013 and Ohio State doing so in 2012) and averaging a national-best 83,545 over the past eight years, per the school’s website. Yet this year’s game in Tuscaloosa, also held Saturday, wasn’t nearly as well-attended based on pictures posted on Twitter:
Even more notable: Alabama did not charge admission to its A-Day game, while Ohio State fans paid $5 (though they also got admittance to the Buckeyes’ men’s lacrosse game beforehand).
