Major College Football Program Draws Embarrassing Crowd on Saturday

It feels unfair to expect every game for every program to be a sellout crowd, but when a program is trending upwards, it is a bit disappointing not to have support from the fans.

It isn't an uncommon sight in college football to see significantly empty stadiums, but having that issue is typically reserved for teams who aren't performing. What ended up being a popular topic of discussion on social media on Saturday was the lack of in-person fan support for the Virginia Cavaliers.

In year three of the Tony Elliott era, the Cavaliers have already secured the best record of his tenure after finishing 3-9 the past two seasons. Heading into the team's ACC matchup with the Louisville Cardinals, Virginia posted an impressive 4-1 record. However, that clearly wasn't enough to draw out fans, as social media posts surfaced criticizing the lack of fans in attendance ahead of kickoff and during the game.

"UVA is 4-1 and the stadium is half filled, I don’t understand it? Someone make it make sense," wrote former NFL star Kyle Long.

"Just pulled up the UVA /Louisville game and Virginia at 4-1 is playing in a half empty stadium. Pitiful," wrote one fan.

"#loluva all the talk from their fans and they have an empty stadium while being 4-1. 🤦‍♂️ Bad look for the ACC and uva," added another.

"This UVA crowd today is why that school and fanbase deserves zero respect. Your team is 4-1 playing a top half ACC team and you can’t fill 50% of your stadium. Clown show," commented another.

While Virginia fought valiantly, they ended up blowing a 20-17 fourth-quarter lead and losing 24-20 thanks to a five-yard pass from Tyler Shough to Jamari Johnson.

You never want to play the game of hypotheticals or blame external factors, but we have seen college football fans impact the outcome of games before. It's not to say that Virginia would have won had more fans showed up, but having fewer than 33,000 fans in a stadium that can hold over 61,000 certainly doesn't create any sort of hostile environment.

Following the loss, Virginia will head to Death Valley to take on No. 10 Clemson in front of one of the most passionate fan bases in college football.

Related: College Football Program's Embarrassing Crowd Leads to Home-Field Advantage For Away Team