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Ever glanced at the sheer wall of bodies in an SEC football stadium and wonder how much bigger the surrounding town has gotten that particular Saturday?
There’s a huge variety among the 14 SEC campuses and the surrounding cities. Vanderbilt sits inside a sprawling metropolis. Still others — well, let’s just admit it — there are a few agricultural centers surrounding some of the conference’s proud programs.
So, how does the population of each SEC college town compare?
SEC PROGRAMS BY CITY POPULATION*
| SEC City | Population Size |
|---|---|
| 1. Nashville | 658,602 |
| 2. Lexington | 310,797 |
| 3. Baton Rouge | 228,895 |
| 4. Knoxville | 184,281 |
| 5. Columbia (S.C.) | 132,067 |
| 6. Gainesville | 128,460 |
| 7. Athens | 119,648 |
| 8. Columbia (Mo.) | 116,906 |
| 9. College Station | 103,483 |
| 10. Tuscaloosa | 96,122 |
| 11. Fayetteville | 80,621 |
| 12. Auburn | 60,258 |
| 13. Starkville | 24,886 |
| 14. Oxford | 21,757 |
*According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates as of 2014, with the exception of Nashville (2013).
- The largest population centers in the SEC — Nashville and Lexington — also represent the programs with the lowest average attendance at football games. Go figure.
- The average home attendance for Ole Miss last season at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium was 61,547 — or nearly three times the population of Oxford.
- Four SEC teams play in stadiums that regularly eclipse the population of the university’s town — Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi State and Ole Miss.
- After the completion of a massive renovation project that didn’t quite reach a half-billion dollars in costs, Kyle Field now holds about 102,512 fans. That represents a slight reduction from last year and dips the stadium capacity back below the estimated population of College Station.
- Nashville, the largest SEC city, is 30.3 times larger than Oxford, the SEC’s smallest city.
- The media population in the SEC lands between Athens and Columbia (Mo.). Incidentally, the Bulldogs clobbered the Tigers, 34-0, at Faurot Field in 2014, but Mizzou claimed a second consecutive SEC East title.
- Baton Rouge — home to the infamous Death Valley — represents the largest SEC city in which the football team made a bowl game last season. No wonder the crowds are so rowdy. (That, and a more relaxed liquor culture.)
- Just for fun, Birmingham, the site of the SEC headquarters, contained an estimated population of 212,247 as of 2014. That would rank fourth in the conference if it included a university, just behind Baton Rouge.
- Atlanta, the site of the SEC championship game, boasts of an estimated population of 456,002. I bet some of you didn’t figure it was so much smaller than Nashville.
An itinerant journalist, Christopher has moved between states 11 times in seven years. Formally an injury-prone Division I 800-meter specialist, he now wanders the Rockies in search of high peaks.
