Houston drew a horrible crowd for its college football game against UCF on Saturday. The stadium was mostly empty.
It was pathetic.
A college football team ranked No. 20 in the country should have no problem reaching full capacity. This was nowhere close!
ESPN rejected Houston’s request for an early kickoff.
Here’s the thing. The Cougars already knew its fanbase was not going to show up on Saturday morning. They have struggled to put butts in the seats over the last few years. An 11:00 a.m. kickoff was not going to be any different, especially after a big night out.
The university held its Houston Athletics Hall of Fame Gala on Friday. Nine former athletes (and current men’s basketball coach Kelvin Sampson) were inducted during the ceremony. Sponsorship levels for the event started at $2,500 It wasn’t cheap.
Many of the school’s most prominent boosters were in attendance at the gala. I would imagine it was a long night.
With that mind, the Cougars reached out to the Big 12 more than a year ago with a specific request. They were hoping to get a night game on Saturday to secure better attendance after the gala on Friday. Plus, they have played only one Saturday night conference game since 2024. Surely the conference would help to lock down the second.
Nope! ESPN completely ignored them.
Houston kicked off to UCF at 11:00 a.m. CT on Saturday morning. It did not get the night game it had hoped.
The crowd was nonexistent.
TDECU Stadium holds a maximum capacity of 40,000. I would estimate a total attendance of 10,000 on Saturday. And that might be generous. Most of the upper deck was empty. Even the lower bowl was less than half full when the Cougars ran onto the field.
It’s ‘Space City’ 🆚 ‘Space U’ in H-Town‼️
— College Football Campus Tour (@cfbcampustour) October 3, 2026
🏟️ TDECU Stadium
🏠 #20 Houston
🆚 UCF#GoCoogs pic.twitter.com/0Y2ykKCH0v
The crowd did not improve as kickoff neared closer.
Here was the scene at the beginning of the first quarter:
Here was the scene at the start of the second quarter:
Even Houston fans were appalled by the poor turnout.
To be fair, there was a small contingency of stragglers. However, their late arrival did not help to fill the stadium.
Big yikes. To make matters worse, Houston wasted some of the coolest helmets in college football history on a nonexistent crowd.
The uniform alone was enough reason to show up. It also happened to be a can’t-lose conference game against a quality opponent. It’s not like this was FCS Southwest. And still, nobody showed up to watch the No. 20-ranked team in the country.