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| The Target Field numbers boosted official home attendance for St. Thomas, which played in front of 52,349 fans in seven home games. Photo by Scott Pierson, d3photography.com |
Thanks to a significant boost from the St. Thomas home game hosted at Target Field in Minneapolis, the Tommies led Division III football in home attendance for the first time in 2017. St. Thomas averaged 7,478 in home attendance in 2017, totaling 52,349 fans at Tommie home games this past fall, including a Division III-record 37,355 fans through the turnstiles for a historic matchup with St. John's at Target Field in September.
Four of the top five recorded attendance figures in Division III football history involve games between St. Thomas and St. John's. The NCAA does not track single-game attendance records in Division III football. Attendance counts are self-reported and most often are estimates rather than actual head counts.
| Rank | School | Dates | Total | Avg. |
| 1 | St. Thomas | 7 | 52,349 | 7,478 |
| 2 | St. John's | 6 | 36,553 | 6,092 |
| 3 | Emory & Henry | 5 | 23,930 | 4,786 |
| 4 | Geneva | 5 | 22,335 | 4,467 |
| 5 | Concordia-Moorhead | 5 | 22,144 | 4,429 |
| 6 | UW-Whitewater | 4 | 17,600 | 4,400 |
| 7 | Amherst | 5 | 21,116 | 4,223 |
| 8 | Ithaca | 5 | 20,938 | 4,188 |
| 9 | McDaniel | 5 | 20,824 | 4,165 |
| 10 | Dubuque | 5 | 19,421 | 3,884 |
| 11 | Christopher Newport | 5 | 19,106 | 3,821 |
| 12 | Tufts | 5 | 18,439 | 3,688 |
| 13 | Lebanon Valley | 5 | 18,085 | 3,617 |
| 14 | Trine | 6 | 21,600 | 3,600 |
| 15 | Mary Hardin-Baylor | 9 | 31,416 | 3,491 |
| 16 | Brockport | 7 | 24,343 | 3,478 |
| 17 | Baldwin Wallace | 5 | 17,385 | 3,477 |
| 18 | Hardin-Simmons | 5 | 17,209 | 3,442 |
| 19 | Wabash | 6 | 19,397 | 3,233 |
| 20 | Widener | 5 | 16,085 | 3,217 |
| 21 | St. John Fisher | 4 | 12,830 | 3,208 |
| 22 | Wilmington | 5 | 15,734 | 3,147 |
| 23 | Maryville | 6 | 18,391 | 3,065 |
| 24 | Randolph-Macon | 5 | 15,248 | 3,050 |
| 25 | Western New England | 6 | 18,000 | 3,000 |
| 26 | Thomas More | 6 | 17,912 | 2,985 |
| 27 | Coast Guard | 6 | 17,803 | 2,967 |
| 28 | Otterbein | 4 | 11,845 | 2,961 |
| 29 | Wartburg | 8 | 23,478 | 2,935 |
| 30 | John Carroll | 5 | 14,665 | 2,933 |
The Division III home attendance average for 2017 was 1,873, while total attendance at D-III football contests around the country topped 2.3 million.
MIAC schools averaged 3,090 fans for home games, while the American Southwest Conference was second at 2,750 and the Ohio Athletic Conference finished third, with 2,618.