Winning remains the easiest way to fill a stadium. Yet in a season that offered little on the scoreboard, the LSU Tigers still drew crowds. Taking things a step further, they also managed to convert that attention into millions off the field.

Extrapoints CFB published a story on alcohol sales in stadiums on December 16 after filing “over 80 record requests” from different programs. Texas A&M raked in the most money through booze sales, churning in $4.7 million. However, at the second spot stood an unexpected LSU, despite having a weak 7-5 record this year. The program has accumulated $3.6 million in alcohol sales, followed by Nebraska’s $3.09 million and Oregon’s $2.7 million. What explains the high alcohol sales in Death Valley?

Timings matter more than we think. The Tigers this year played 7 night games in total out of their 13 games. Among the 7 games, 5 were at home. In college football, night games typically are the fixtures played after 5 p.m., and LSU raked in the advantage of it with its uptick in alcohol sales. Night games also offer longer tailgating windows, leading to more overall drinking by the fans. That pattern is well documented in game-day research.

A peer-reviewed study examining college football tailgating found that “alcohol consumption on game days was significantly higher than on non–game days,” with tailgating environments linked to heavier and more prolonged drinking episodes. Another study published in the Journal of American College Health similarly noted that “sporting event attendance is associated with elevated levels of alcohol use compared to typical social occasions.”

Each spring, the conference and ESPN publish a set of kickoff windows (early, afternoon, night, flex) for every SEC team. Individual games are then placed into those windows and assigned network coverage across ESPN platforms or ABC/SEC Network. Those windows matter because networks favor prime-time slots for marquee matchups: prime time delivers larger national audiences, higher ratings, and, by extension, more lucrative advertising and promotional value. ESPN’s own mid-season viewership summarizes that. Friday Night games are averaging 2.4 million viewers, up 39 percent, marking three of ESPN’s five most-watched Friday games in the past decade. But LSU’s 2025 slate shows the practical effect.

The program was placed into multiple night windows (seven kickoffs after 5 p.m., five at home), and those assignments, set within the SEC/ESPN scheduling framework, created more prime-time exposure and longer pregame social windows on dates that aired in those slots.

Finally, the financial logic is straightforward and documented in the Extra Points records: when programs get more prime-time or marquee windows, the combination of higher attendance, longer tailgating windows, and larger TV audiences can produce measurable lifts in in-stadium revenue lines such as alcohol sales. Extra Points’ FOIA-based dataset, which ranks LSU near the top nationally, is the direct source for those sales figures.

Even though LSU played its first night game away at Clemson, the effect of the environment under floodlights was there to see. A whopping 45,000 alcohol units were sold, and more than 400 people signed up to be Clemson’s designated drivers. All of it created arguably “the best atmosphere” of the season for Clemson. Plus, the game also delivered the most alcohol sales of the season for Clemson.

Alcohol in the stadiums wasn’t always there to see just two decades back. It all started in the late 2010s, and football stadiums looked at alcohol as a major source of revenue. Later, in 2019 SEC voted to remove the booze ban at games, eventually fueling every program to incorporate alcohol sales into their stadiums. That, of course, also included LSU.

“Since the SEC made that decision, other Power 5 conferences followed suit, and we’ve seen an exponential rise,” said Texas A&M behavioral social scientist Adam Barry. Currently, around 80% of the 70 Power 4 schools sell alcohol in their stadiums, and others are increasingly following suit. Wisconsin, for instance, was hesitant about starting booze in its stadium. But that changed quickly last year.

“If our fan experience metrics increase, then it certainly warrants a conversation,” said Wisconsin deputy AD Mitchell Pinta in 2023. Later in 2024, the Badgers started selling alcohol and officially became the 16th Big 10 school to do so. For Wisconsin, though, the alcohol sales dropped by 19% after their disappointing 2-7 2025 season. Only if they had scheduled several night games like LSU, the story would have been something else altogether.

Other factors explaining LSU’s high alcohol sales in 2025

Despite LSU having a woeful season this year, the performance at home was still decent. The Tigers lost just a single game at home, against an undefeated Texas A&M. Barring that, the program raked in some signature wins, too. LSU defeated South Carolina 20-10 at home. It also cruised past Florida 20-10 and later notched a narrow 23-22 win against Arkansas. Maybe this winning record at home can be a factor for fans flocking to Death Valley and engaging in drinking?

Factor in that the atmosphere at the stadium is louder than anywhere, and fans can have that in mind, too, when choosing to attend any game. “It’s as loud as anywhere you’re going to go play, but it’s the mindset and the confidence their fans exude on the players that make it tough to go play there,” said Dan Mullen about LSU’s atmosphere.

Despite the woeful overall record, LSU’s average attendance hovered around 101,575. That’s 99.27% of the stadium’s capacity. That also places LSU 7th in the country, and can explain a lot about the high alcohol sales. Higher attendance directly translates to more sales of alcohol, especially in night games. Texas A&M, for example, averaged the third-highest attendance this year, and their $4.7 million alcohol sales are evidence for just that.

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All of it is a cycle, and the sales aren’t going down anytime soon, at least if programs continue to schedule more night games.