James Madison, North Dakota State, Jacksonville State and Montana all draw great crowds and have been traditional FCS powers for years, but did you know none of those aforementioned FCS programs crack the top four when it comes to drawing the biggest crowd in an FCS vs. FCS game?
[divider]COMPARE: Any FCS Players | Any FCS Playoff Teams[divider]
That's right, the best crowds in the FCS this year have come in three HBCU contests at neutral sites. Legendary venues like Legion Field in Birmingham (Ala.), the Cotton Bowl in Dallas and the Liberty Bowl in Memphis have hosted the biggest FCS vs. FCS crowds this year — combining to put 164,000 fans in the seats in just three games.
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Welcome to the Magic City Classic, the State Fair Classic and the Southern Heritage Classic. And we still have two massive ones to go in the Florida Classic (Florida A&M vs. Bethune Cookman) and Bayou Classic coming up between Grambling and Southern — which will settle the SWAC West Division title and put a team in the SWAC Championship — so that one should be crowded too, later this month.
Take a look below at the FCS' Top 30 crowds so far, along with the best crowds for FCS schools that visited Power Five stadiums this year — and the top crowds for FCS conferences that didn't have a game crack the Top 30 list. All below:[divider]
| RK | ATT. | HOME | AWAY | FIELD |
| 1 | 61,221 | Alabama St(*) | Alabama A&M | Legion Field |
| 2 | 55,231 | PV A&M(&) | Grambling | Cotton Bowl |
| 3 | 47,407 | Jackson St(#) | Tennessee State | Liberty Bowl |
| 4 | 26,792 | SF Austin(%) | Sam Houston | NRG Stadium |
| 5 | 25,993 | JMU | Villanova | Bridgeforth |
| 6 | 25,944 | Montana | E Washington | Wash. Grizzly |
| 7 | 25,442 | Alabama St | Tuskegee | New ASU Stad |
| 8 | 25,330 | JMU | Maine | Bridgeforth |
| 9 | 25,298 | JMU | New Hampshire | Bridgeforth |
| 10 | 25,085 | Montana | North Dakota | Wash.Grizzly |
| 11 | 25,067 | Florida A&M | NC A&T | Bragg |
| 12 | 24,722 | JMU | ETSU | Bridgeforth |
| 13 | 23,944 | Jacksonville St | Liberty | Burgess-Snow |
| 14 | 23,738 | Alcorn St | Southern | Jack Spinks |
| 15 | 23,160 | Montana | Valparaiso | Wash. Grizzly |
| 16 | 23,118 | JMU | Norfolk State | Bridgeforth |
| 17 | 22,228 | Montana | Savannah State | Wash. Grizzly |
| 18 | 22,135 | UNH | URI | Cowell |
| 19 | 21,509 | Alcorn St | PV A&M | Jack Spinks |
| 20 | 21,500 | NC A&T | Delaware State | Aggie Stad |
| 21 | 21,127 | Tennessee St(@) | Austin Peay | Nissan Stad |
| 22 | 20,466 | Montana | Northern Ariz. | Wash. Grizzly |
| 23 | 19,817 | Montana St | South Dakota St | Bobcat Stad. |
| 24 | 19,557 | Montana St | Weber State | Bobcat Stad. |
| 25 | 18,987 | Montana St | Portland State | Bobcat Stad. |
| 26 | 18,892 | North Dakota St | Missouri State | Fargodome |
| 27 | 18,721 | Delaware | William & Mary | Delaware Stad. |
| 28 | 18,687 | North Dakota St | Northern Iowa | Fargodome |
| 29 | 18,630 | North Dakota St | Western Illinois | Fargodome |
| 30 | 18,585 | Jackson St | Alabama St | Miss. Veterans |
(*) – Magic City Classic on Oct. 28; (&) – State Fair Classic on Oct. 7; (#) – Southern Heritage Classic on Sept. 9; (%) – Neutral site Southland Conference game at NRG Stadium – home stadiums not big enough; (@) – Tennessee State home game played at Nissan Stadium in Nashville.[divider]
FCS Conferences that didn't have a Top 30 game – Their top attendance games
| CONF. | FCS TEAM | ATT. |
| Big South | Kennesaw at Liberty | 17,726 |
| Ivy | Columbia at Yale | 15,422 |
| Southern | Wofford at Mercer | 12,727 |
| Patriot | Georgetown at Holy Cross | 9,063 |
| Pioneer | Stetson at Morehead St. | 8,987 |
| NEC | Fordham at Bryant | 7,532 |
[divider]
Top crowds an FCS team has played in front of in 2017
| ATT. | FCS TEAM | OPPONENT |
| 100,276 | Nicholls | at Texas A&M |
| 99,015 | Indiana St. | at Tennessee |
| 97,289 | Chattanooga | at LSU |
| 92,746 | Samford | at Georgia |
| 87,033 | Mercer | at Auburn |
| 68,491 | Montana | at Washington |
| 62,526 | Delaware | at Virginia Tech |
| 61,500 | Northern Iowa | at Iowa State |
| 60,476 | UT Martin | at Ole Miss |
| 56,166 | Furman | at N.C. State |
| 55,427 | Portland St. | at BYU |
| 54,988 | Eastern Wash. | at Texas Tech |
| 54,868 | Eastern Ky. | at Kentucky |
| 54,215 | Char. Southern | at Mississippi St. |
| 52,204 | Southern Utah | at Oregon |
| 51,482 | Delaware St. | at West Virginia |
| 51,043 | Cent. Arkansas | at Kansas St |
| 50,454 | Beth-Cookman | at Miami (FL) |
| 50,161 | Jacksonville St. | at Ga. Tech |
| 50,131 | Missouri St. | at Mizzou |
