The definition for “lackluster” is “lacking in vitality, force, or conviction; uninspired.”

In terms of college football fan bases, “lackluster” is defined by a group of followers who as a whole lack the conviction and fervor of other programs. 

One somewhat objective way to identify groups of fans that are less enthusiastic and supportive than others is home attendance numbers. 

In analyzing these statistics, total attendance itself isn’t a fair gauge because obviously some schools have bigger facilities, larger student bodies and are located in more populous areas.

In all fairness, the ratio of home attendance to stadium capacity is a reasonably good indicator of the dedication level of a group of supporters (throwing out teams who play in facilities overmatched for their fan bases such as Temple who plays in Lincoln Financial Field and Tulane who plays in the Superdome). 

 It’s pretty simple; supportive, dedicated, hard core fans show up at the home games, right?

And, these fans usually show up regardless of how bad the team is.  Case in point, in 2010 teams like Michigan, Houston, Georgia, Minnesota and Tennessee had close to 100 percent attendance at home games regardless of subpar seasons.

Now, you could argue that fans (even though they flock to games in droves) who throw batteries while intoxicated, violently harass opposing fans, start riots and are lewd aren’t “good” fans but you can’t say that they are “lackluster” fans.

The following slideshow identifies the 50 most lackluster fan bases in college football; these are the programs with the least overall support (at least recently) from a fan standpoint.

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