Healthy Tailgating / Research and Health Effects

Alcohol Use at Football Tailgates

Extreme Ritualistic Alcohol Consumption Among College Students on Game Days
  • Extreme Ritualistic Alcohol Consumption (ERAC) is defined as consuming 10 or more drinks on game day for a male, and 8 or more for a female. 
  • These ritualistic events represent special circumstances for consuming alcohol; occasions where overindulgence seems more acceptable and even expected. This phenomenon, sometimes referred to as a "Time out" period, occurs where social control is relaxed and deviant acts are legitimized by an attitude of tolerance, a time out from the status quo. Time out events are associated with heavy drinking, illegal drinking, fighting, sexual activity, and overall impulsive behavior. 
  • The results reveal roughly half of the sample population report typically drinking on game day, consuming on average 7 alcoholic drinks over a 4-hour time period. Nearly 2 out of every 5 students engaged in heavy episodic drinking on game day, with females drinking at substantially lower rates than males. 
Source: Glassman, T., et al. Extreme Ritualistic Alcohol Consumption Among College Students on Game Days. Journal of American College Health, Vol. 58, No. 5. 2010.

University of Texas Study - "Hook 'em Horns and Heavy Drinking: Alcohol Use and Collegiate Sports"
  • High-profile football game days were among the heaviest days for alcohol consumption, comparable to consumption on other well-known drinking days such as New Years Eve and Halloween weekend.
Source: Neal, D., Fromme, K. “Hook ‘em horns and heavy drinking: Alcohol use and collegiate sports.” Kent State University and University of Texas at Austin.

University of Minnesota BAC Study of Professional Game Day Tailgating 
  • 1 in 4 fans who tailgated reported having consumed  5 or more alcoholic drinks while tailgating (i.e., binge drank).
  • Those who consume alcohol at tailgating parties 14 times more likely to be legally drunk .
  • Monday night football attendees had over 3 times the odds of having a mid-range BAC than attendees at all other games
  • On average there may be approximately 5,000 fans leaving an NFL event above the BAC legal limit for driving
Source: Erickson, D. et al. “Can We Assess Blood Alcohol Levels of Attendees Leaving Professional Sporting Events.”

Texas Tech University Study on Analysis of Risk Management Policies for Tailgating Activities
  • A total of 68 (69%) of the 98 institutions were found to possess risk management strategies for tailgating activities.
  • Forty-six (68%) respondents indicated that alcohol consumption-related tailgating policies existed.
Source: John Miller. "Analysis of Risk Management Policies for Tailgating Activities at Selected NCAA Division I Football Games."

The Pennsylvania State University study on Tailgating as a unique context for parental modeling on college student alcohol use
  • Approximately 27% of mothers and 48% of fathers were perceived as engaging in Heavy Episodic Drinking (HED) in the past year, with ∼19% and ∼31%, respectively, perceived as having engaged in this behavior between 1 and 11 times in the past year.
  • 42% of students reported that their parents tailgated, 38% reported that their parents drank at tailgates, and 21% reported that their parents got drunk at tailgates
  • Higher parental HED and drunkenness at tailgates were associated with higher student drinking, drunkenness, and negative consequences
Source: Caitlin Abar. "Brief report: Tailgating as a unique context for parental modeling on college student alcohol use." 

 Indiana Prevention Resource Center - Fall, Football Tailgating and Playing Safe 
  • 90% of college students sampled by University of Toledo study of football home games had measurable alcohol in their blood.
  • average BAC was .061 with 20% being greater than or equal to 0.08% (legally intoxicated).

Alcohol Use Among College Students

Emerging adult college students are among the heaviest drinking demographic groups in the U.S. 
  • Those who attend college consume considerably more alcohol than their non-college peers.
  • 48.8% of college students were high-risk drinkers - defined as 5 or more drinks in 1 sitting at least once during the 2 weeks prior to survey
  • Researchers have documented that heavy drinking is associated with campuses that have athletic programs.
Sources: Johnston, et al., 2005; Wechsler, et al., 2002; Core Institute 2004 National Survey of College Students

College student drinking: Characteristics and variability
  • drinking varied with time of year and was higher at both the start and end of the academic year
  • drinking varied with day of the week with students drinking four times as much on the weekends as during the week
  • drinking varied with the event calendar, with consumption at its lowest during exam periods and highest during holidays and special events
  • Community events have been associated with heavy drinking, even among students who do not ordinarily report heavy drinking
Source: Clayton Neighbors. "Event-specific prevention: Addressing college student drinking during known windows of risk" 

Alcohol Consumption during football tailgating
  • There is indirect evidence that suggests that tailgating is associated with heavy drinking among college students
  • Following a beer ban at the University of Colorado at Boulder, significant decreases were observed in the number of ejections, arrests, assaults, and student referrals to judicial affairs
  • Sports fans were more likely to drink, drank more heavily, and experienced more alcohol-related problems than non-sports fans in a samply of nearly 12,000 U.S. college students 
Source: Neighbors Et Al. "Event- and Context-Specific Normative Misperceptions and High-Risk Drinking: 21st Birthday Celebrations and Football Tailgating" 
Drinking and Driving Among College Students

1) About 3 out of 10 college students drove after drinking 
2) Drinking and driving increases in direct proportion to binge drinking (chart at right).  
  • 58% of frequent binge drinkers
  • 40% of occasional binge drinkers
  • 19% of non-binge drinkers reported they drove after drinking.
3) Young drivers are over represented in both alcohol- and non-alcohol traffic related fatality rates. (NHTSA)
4) Alcohol-related traffic fatality rates are nearly twice as great for 18-, 19- and 20-year olds as for the population over 21.

Sources: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), CORE Institute Alcohol and College Students 101 Fact  Sheet; 2001 Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS).


Los Angeles County Data 
  • Excessive alcohol consumption is the 2nd leading cause of premature death and disability in Los Angeles County.
  • Each year about 2,500 people in Los Angeles County die from an alcohol-related cause, with a loss of an estimated 78,000 years of life. This tragic loss of life costs the region an estimated $10.8 billion annually, or roughly $1,000 for every resident. Alcohol related illness also accounted for 27,424 hospitalizations in one year in LA  County.
  • In 2008, there were 258 alcohol-involved fatal collisions in Los Angeles County and 4,832 alcohol-involved injury collisions.
Source: “Reducing Alcohol-Related Harms in Los Angeles County.” LA County Dept. of Public Health. 2011.


U.S. College Students (Alcohol-Related Deaths)
  • About 1,700 college students die per year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, the majority in motor vehicle crashes.
Source: Hingson, R., Heeren, T., Winter, M., and Wechsler, H. “Magnitude of alcohol-related mortality and morbidity among U.S. college students ages 18-24: Changes from 1998 to 2001.” Annual Review of Public Health 26: 259-279, 2005.


National Data (Binge Drinking, Health Effects and Consequences)
  • Excessive alcohol use is the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States
  • 79,000 deaths and 2.3 million Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL) in the US each year
  • 1 in 6 US adults - more than 38 million - binge drink, about 4 times a month. (binge drinking means men drinking 5 or more alcoholic drinks within a short period of time or women drinking 4 or more within a short period of time.)
  • The estimated cost to the national economy of deaths related to excessive alcohol consumption was $223.5 billion in 2006.
  • Age group with the most binge drinkers: 18-34 years.
  • Age group that binge drinks the most: 65+ years
  • Income group with the most binge drinkers: $75,000+
  • Income group that binge drinks the most often and drinks the most per binge: less than $25,000
  • Most alcohol-impaired drivers binge drink
  • Most people who binge drink are not alcohol dependent or alcoholics.
  • More than half of the alcohol adults drink is while binge drinking.  More than 90% of the alcohol youth drink is while binge drinking. 
  • Drinking too much contributes to over 54 different injuries and diseases, including car crashes, violence and sexually-transmitted diseases.

Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Community Guide - What Works to Promote Health. www.thecommunityguide.org; CDC Vital Signs, January 2012. Binge Drinking: Nationwide Problem, Local Solutions. www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns

Additional Resources, References