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Behind The Numbers: College Football Business Grows Exponentially

CNBC.com | March 30, 2011 | 12:00 PM EDT

The NFL always gets so much credit as a growing robust business, but the financials behind college football aren't published as often. I just had a chance to look at some data released by the National Football Foundation and I thought it was worth passing on some of these incredible numbers.

49.6 million fans watched an NCAA football game at the 639 schools this past year. That's an increase of nearly 3 percent from the prior season.

Thirteen FBS teams played in front of more than a million people on the season (Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Florida, LSU, Texas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Georgia).

Four FBS teams saw increases of more than 10,000 fans from last year (Louisville, Northwestern, Rice and Eastern Michigan).

College football has 103 million fans, 61 percent of which are men. Twenty five percent of the total college football fan base has a household income of $100,000 or more and 32 percent of the total fan base is married.

CBS' coverage of the of the Iron Bowl, the matchup between Auburn and Alabama on Nov. 26, was the highest rated college football game of the 2010 season on any network.

Ten bowl games produced ratings jumps of more than 20 percent, including the Insight Bowl — between Iowa and Missouri — which saw a ratings jump of 460 percent. Forty three percent of America watched at least one of the 35 bowl games.

Questions? Comments? SportsBiz@cnbc.com

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