These College Basketball Programs Had the Biggest Changes in Fan Attendance Last Season

The NCAA recently released the attendance data for every men’s basketball program for the 2018-19 season. Syracuse led the 353 Division I schools last season with an average of 21,992 fans per home game, and South Carolina State was last with an average of 202 fans per game.

It’s worth noting these reported numbers count the number of tickets sold and not actual fans in attendance.

We analyzed the data for every D-I program’s attendance last season and compared it to the 2017-18 season so that we could identify the schools that had the biggest positive and negative changes year over year.

Last season, 190 of the 353 D-I programs (53.8%) saw attendance decline but across the sport, attendance was slightly up on a per-game basis — an average of 4,605 fans per Division I home game in 2018-19, up from 4,592 in 2017-18.

There were 89 schools (25.2%) that saw a drop-off in attendance greater than 10 percent and 91 schools saw an improvement greater than 10 percent, meaning that individual program attendance is cyclical, depending on coaching hires, promising recruiting classes and recent NCAA Tournament success.

Biggest improvements in attendance in 2019 (by percentage)

The following chart shows the 25 schools that had the highest improvement in attendance from the 2017-18 season to 2018-19, based on percentage improvement.

Rank School Conference 2018 Attendance (avg.) 2019 Attendance (avg.) % Change
1 McNeese Southland 793 2,249 +183.6%
2 Memphis AAC 6,225 14,065 +125.9%
3 Louisiana-Monroe Sun Belt 1,578 3,341 +111.7%
4 Portland State Big Sky 606 1,238 +104.3%
5 Houston AAC 3,661 6,052 +65.3%
6 Pittsburgh ACC 4,116 6,749 +64.0%
7 Northern Arizona Big Sky 662 1,076 +62.5%
8 Alcorn SWAC 414 643 +55.3%
T9 Loyola Chicago MVC 2,404 3,712 +54.4%
T9 Lipscomb ASUN 1,494 2,307 +54.4%
11 Eastern Kentucky OVC 1,628 2,489 +52.9%
12 UMBC America East 1,155 1,753 +51.8%
T13 Texas State Sun Belt 2,037 3,067 +50.6%
T13 Campbell Big South 1,458 2,196 +50.6%
15 Detroit Mercy Horizon 1,240 1,841 +48.5%
16 Buffalo MAC 3,569 5,290 +48.2%
17 Sacred Heart NEC 442 648 +46.6%
18 Murray State OVC 3,800 5,442 +43.2%
19 Liberty ASUN 2,044 2,913 +42.5%
T20 Alabama State SWAC 1,296 1,835 +41.6%
T20 The Citadel SoCon 757 1,072 +41.6%
22 Lamar Southland 1,560 2,199 +41.0%
23 Evansville MVC 3,782 5,294 +40.0%
24 Cincinnati AAC 8,081 11,256 +39.3%
25 Presbyterian Big South 387 538 +39.0%

 

OBSERVATIONS:

  • The American Athletic Conference had two of the top five schools in percentage increase in attendance and three in the top 25. To see that Memphis was first in total attendance increase and second in percentage attendance increase speaks to the rejuvenation that Memphis Head Coach Penny Hardaway had in his first year back at his alma mater.
  • Loyola Chicago and UMBC, the two biggest Cinderella teams in the 2018 NCAA Tournament, received a significant bump in attendance the year after their postseason success. We’ll go more in-depth on this phenomenon later, but it’s likely not a coincidence that this happened after Loyola Chicago made the Final Four and UMBC upset No. 1 seed Virginia during the previous season.
  • Murray State benefitted from Ja Morant‘s breakout season, as the future No. 2 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft fueled more than a 40% increase in fan attendance. The Racers’ 5,442 fan average wasn’t terribly far off from Gonzaga or Houston’s average attendance, for perspective.
  • While Pittsburgh still has work to do on the court to get back to its days of annual NCAA Tournament appearances and single-digit seeds, fans started to come back to the Petersen Events Center after the school hired former Duke Assistant Coach Jeff Capel. The Panthers ranked fifth nationally in total fan increase (2,633) and sixth in percentage increase (64%) after drawing an average of 6,749 fans per home game. That’s not where the program was during its peak under Ben Howland and Jamie Dixon (roughly 11,000), but it’s a start.
  • Cincinnati saw a significant jump as it moved back on campus to Fifth Third Arena last season after playing its 2017-18 home games at Northern Kentucky’s BB&T Arena.

 

Biggest decline in attendance in 2019 (by percentage)

The following chart shows the 25 schools with the biggest decline in attendance (by percentage) from the 2017-18 season to 2018-19.

Rank School Conference 2018 Attendance (avg.) 2019 Attendance (avg.) % Change
353 Jackson State SWAC 2,265 805 -64.5%
352 Idaho Big Sky 1,787 712 -60.2%
351 Incarnate Word Southland 1,095 509 -53.5%
350 Prairie View SWAC 1,624 776 -52.2%
349 Tennessee State OVC 1,903 965 -49.3%
348 Middle Tennessee CUSA 6,774 3,734 -44.9%
347 Coppin State MEAC 1,146 671 -41.4%
346 Hartford America East 1,408 850 -39.6%
345 Stetson ASUN 681 418 -38.6%
344 VMI SoCon 1,600 988 -38.3%
343 DePaul Big East 6,147 3,806 -38.1%
342 Louisiana Tech CUSA 3,447 2,170 -37.0%
341 Arkansas-Pine Bluff SWAC 3,504 2,215 -36.8%
340 South Carolina State MEAC 319 202 -36.7%
339 Central Arkansas Southland 1,416 909 -35.8%
338 Mount St. Mary’s NEC 2,164 1,438 -33.5%
337 Morgan State MEAC 2,293 1,547 -32.5%
336 Missouri SEC 15,061 10,253 -31.9%
335 LIU Brooklyn NEC 989 679 -31.3%
334 Kennesaw State ASUN 1,146 795 -30.6%
333 Central Connecticut State NEC 1,428 1,005 -29.6%
332 Eastern Washington Big Sky 1,628 1,152 -29.2%
331 Seattle WAC 1,384 985 -28.8%
330 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Southland 1,600 1,185 -25.9%
329 Army Patriot 1,253 932 -25.6%

 

How does winning affect attendance?

It’s obviously not a perfect exercise to compare wins to attendance because high-major schools experiencing a down season can benefit from large arenas and loyal fanbases, while successful low and mid-major schools can be limited by the size of their gyms. For example, Indiana went 6-25 in the 2009 season, but the Hoosiers still ranked 16th nationally in attendance with an average of 14,331 fans per game.

On the other end of the spectrum, Wofford won 30 games last season, earning a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament and finishing the season ranked No. 18 on kenpom.com, but the Terriers averaged 2,368 fans in their 3,400-seat Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium. Even if they sold out every game, they still would have been limited by an arena with the 291st-largest seating capacity among Division I programs, according to kenpom.com.

But nonetheless, we were curious about what a scatter plot showing wins and average home attendance would look like based on data from last season.

Another interesting comparison is wins compared to percentage change in attendance. For the reasons outlined above, this could be a better indicator of college basketball’s layered relationship.

We found that for the most part, programs that won at least 25 games last season typically maintained or improved upon their attendance from the 2018 season. There were five exceptions, but we generally found that when schools have a season in which they win a significant number of games, they’re either continuing to sell out every game (leading to a zero percent change) or bringing in more fans than the previous season.

The Cinderella story

There were seven one-bid leagues represented in the 2018 NCAA Tournament and four of them pulled off at least one upset, leading to a notable increase in attendance during the 2019 season.

We’re talking about Loyola Chicago (No. 11 seed, Final Four), UMBC (No. 16 seed, second round), Buffalo (No. 13 seed, second round) and Marshall (No. 13 seed, second round).

Three of them — Loyola Chicago (+54.4%), UMBC (+51.8%) and Buffalo (+48.2%) — saw at least a 48 percent increase in average home attendance last season after their impressive NCAA Tournament showing.

Marshall also saw a notable increase in home attendance after being Conference USA’s sole representative in the 2018 NCAA Tournament as the Thundering Herd’s average home attendance improved by 10.6% last season.

Buffalo made roughly $10,800 from men’s basketball ticket sales per home game in 2018 and $162,537 for the entire season, so if the university’s ticket sales increased at the same rate (48.2 percent) as its home attendance figures, that means Buffalo made roughly $16,000 per home game in 2019 and $240,879 for the 2018-19 season.

What would a potential $78,000 increase in ticket revenue mean for Buffalo?

It would potentially double the entire athletic department’s annual revenue. Buffalo operated at an excess of $71,577 in revenues over expenses in 2018, according to its NCAA Financial Report, so all other expenses and revenues being equal, the additional ticket revenue could’ve been a huge financial windfall.

One of the other seven schools in the 2018 NCAA Tournament from a one-bid league was Gonzaga, which isn’t a typical program from a one-bid conference as it has made the NCAA Tournament in each of the last 21 seasons, highlighted by a national runner-up finish in 2017.

Gonzaga’s home arena, the McCarthey Athletic Center has a maximum seating capacity of 6,000 — the 195th largest in Division I, according to kenpom.com. So for a program of its caliber (kenpom.com ranks Gonzaga as the 12th-best program since 1997, for reference), the ‘Zags have a fairly small seating capacity, which they’ve maxed out in recent years. Since Gonzaga averaged a sellout in each of the last two seasons, its percent change in attendance from 2018 to 2019 was zero percent.

The only one of the seven schools that suffered a negative change in average home attendance last season was Texas Southern (-12.3%), which lost successful coach Mike Davis to Detroit Mercy after the 2018 season.

This data suggests that there’s instantly a significant season-long benefit for a program from a one-bid league that makes the NCAA Tournament, then is responsible for at least one upset in March.

Which schools made the most money from home games?

Even though the standardized NCAA Financial Reports for every Division I school for the 2019 fiscal year aren’t available, we can use schools’ 2018 NCAA Financial Reports, along with their corresponding 2018 attendance data, to see which schools made the most money from tickets sales two seasons ago, as well as per home game and per fan.

Stadium has obtained a copy of the 2018 NCAA Financial Report for 180 schools — more than 50 percent of all Division I programs. These NCAA Financial Reports are unavailable for private schools, state-affiliated institutions and schools located in certain states where public records laws require one to be a resident of the state to make such a request.

116 of the 353 Division I men’s basketball programs reside at private schools, including every school in the Big East, Ivy League, MAAC and Patriot League.

We calculated ticket sales per home game and ticket sales per fan by dividing each school’s reported season-long ticket sales listed in its NCAA Financial Report by the school’s number of home games and the total number of fans the school had across all of its home games in the 2017-18 season.

As a reminder, the prices of tickets sold in secondary markets do not result in the school getting that amount of money. So when you hear about tickets for North Carolina-Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium selling for thousands of dollars on a ticket re-sale website, it’s not as if the host university is pocketing that money.

The highest ticket revenue

The following table lists the 25 schools, among those whose 2018 NCAA Financial Reports were obtained by Stadium, that earned the highest men’s basketball ticket revenue from the 2017-18 season.

Ten of the 25 are Big Ten schools.

Rank School Conference 2018 Fiscal Year Ticket Sales
1 Kentucky SEC $22,198,868
2 Kansas Big 12 $15,855,254
3 Louisville ACC $13,971,014
4 North Carolina ACC $12,834,752
5 Indiana Big Ten $10,319,525
6 NC State ACC $7,324,140
7 Arizona Pac-12 $6,939,738
8 Michigan State Big Ten $6,903,495
9 Wisconsin Big Ten $6,828,343
10 Maryland Big Ten $6,691,236
11 Ohio State Big Ten $6,037,055
12 UCLA Pac-12 $5,543,085
13 Illinois Big Ten $5,460,324
14 Missouri SEC $5,145,857
15 Memphis AAC $5,075,882
16 Minnesota Big Ten $5,070,792
17 Texas Big 12 $4,721,613
18 Virginia ACC $4,654,678
19 Wichita State AAC $4,511,598
20 Purdue Big Ten $4,380,561
21 San Diego State Mountain West $4,306,539
22 Iowa State Big 12 $4,204,803
23 West Virginia Big 12 $4,198,470
24 Michigan Big Ten $4,099,387
25 New Mexico Mountain West $3,489,086

 

The hottest tickets

The following chart shows which D-I schools, among those whose 2018 NCAA Financial Reports were obtained by Stadium, made the most money, on average, per fan per game.

In other words, how much did schools make on average from selling one ticket to one fan for one game?

We calculated these figures by dividing the number of total fans a school had across all of its home games during the 2017-18 season (numbers courtesy of the NCAA) by the school’s reported ticket revenue that’s listed on its 2018 NCAA Financial Report.

Rank School Conference 2018 Ticket Sales Per Fan Per Game
1 Kentucky SEC $56.38
2 Kansas Big 12 $53.89
3 North Carolina ACC $46.56
4 Memphis AAC $42.92
5 UCLA Pac-12 $40.19
6 Louisville ACC $37.61
7 Indiana Big Ten $36.77
8 Arizona Pac-12 $30.05
9 Michigan State Big Ten $27.44
10 Texas Big 12 $26.20
11 Wichita State AAC $26.14
12 Maryland Big Ten $25.33
13 San Diego State Mountain West $25.31
14 NC State ACC $25.27
15 Minnesota Big Ten $25.17
16 Ohio State Big Ten $24.85
17 UConn AAC $24.79
18 Illinois Big Ten $24.05
19 Michigan Big Ten $23.57
20 VCU A-10 $22.15
21 Wisconsin Big Ten $21.96
22 Washington Pac-12 $21.37
23 Missouri SEC $21.35
24 California Pac-12 $21.11
25 Virginia Tech ACC $20.64

 

Conference breakdown

Here is a conference-by-conference attendance breakdown for every Division I conference.

Schools are listed in descending order of average attendance last season.

To view a financial breakdown of how much schools made off of their ticket sales, as well as concessions, parking and novelty items sold at home games, click on the conference headings below when available.

America East

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 158 Stony Brook 2,722 2,753
2 161 Vermont 2,929 2,693
3 201 Albany 2,474 2,105
4 208 Binghamton 2,623 2,009
5 229 UMBC 1,155 1,753
6 281 UMass Lowell 1,119 1,203
7 306 Maine 1,028 1,009
8 317 Hartford 1,408 850
9 351 New Hampshire 481 383

American Athletic Conference

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 17 Memphis 6,225 14,065
2 29 Cincinnati 8,081 11,256
3 41 Wichita State 10,787 10,194
4 52 UConn 7,829 8,652
5 83 Temple 6,324 6,211
6 86 Houston 3,661 6,052
7 93 SMU 6,659 5,770
8 109 UCF 4,635 4,724
9 116 Tulsa 4,517 4,229
10 128 East Carolina 3,363 3,755
11 139 South Florida 2,569 3,365
12 254 Tulane 1,610 1,457

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Atlantic 10

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 22 Dayton 12,996 12,957
2 65 VCU 7,637 7,637
3 74 Saint Louis 6,235 6,890
4 92 Rhode Island 6,216 5,797
5 95 Richmond 6,491 5,730
6 112 George Mason 4,087 4,335
7 114 St. Bonaventure 4,286 4,274
8 126 Davidson 4,276 3,800
9 133 Saint Joseph’s 3,688 3,692
10 155 UMass 2,994 2,792
11 171 George Washington 2,648 2,382
12 177 Duquesne 1,813 2,308
13 197 La Salle 1,911 2,113
14 220 Fordham 1,566 1,864

 

ACC

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 1 Syracuse 21,462 21,992
2 3 North Carolina 18,378 19,715
3 6 Louisville 16,883 16,601
4 16 Virginia 13,923 14,087
5 20 N.C. State 15,253 13,897
6 47 Duke 9,314 9,314
7 48 Florida State 8,512 9,127
8 60 Virginia Tech 7,678 8,237
9 66 Notre Dame 7,777 7,628
10 67 Wake Forest 8,425 7,626
11 72 Clemson 7,743 7,015
12 78 Pittsburgh 4,116 6,749
13 79 Miami 7,117 6,645
14 88 Georgia Tech 6,518 5,945
15 103 Boston College 5,160 5,243

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Atlantic Sun

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 143 Florida Gulf Coast 3,655 3,274
2 152 Liberty 2,044 2,913
3 178 Lipscomb 1,494 2,307
4 228 North Florida 1,808 1,759
5 311 North Alabama Not D-I 974
6 320 Kennesaw State 1,146 795
7 321 Jacksonville 810 794
8 337 NJIT 756 649
9 349 Stetson 681 418

 

Big 12

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 7 Kansas 16,344 16,236
2 15 Iowa State 14,121 14,099
3 26 Texas Tech 10,739 12,098
4 35 Kansas State 8,711 10,640
5 40 West Virginia 12,303 10,205
6 53 Texas 10,601 8,650
7 55 Oklahoma 10,253 8,531
8 68 Oklahoma State 7,010 7,292
9 82 Baylor 6,331 6,218
10 84 TCU 6,561 6,070

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Big East

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 8 Creighton 17,000 15,980
2 9 Marquette 12,323 15,611
3 42 Xavier 10,475 10,034
4 43 St. John’s 9,134 9,798
5 46 Providence 9,547 9,542
6 49 Villanova 11,828 9,053
7 57 Seton Hall 8,456 8,507
8 58 Butler 8,554 8,419
9 70 Georgetown 7,531 7,212
10 125 DePaul 6,147 3,806

 

Big Sky

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 76 Weber State 6,778 6,755
2 115 Montana 4,040 4,234
3 154 Montana State 3,078 2,802
4 204 Southern Utah 2,394 2,055
5 240 Northern Colorado 1,439 1,650
6 256 Idaho State 1,617 1,441
7 277 Portland State 606 1,238
8 290 Eastern Washington 1,628 1,152
9 300 Northern Arizona 662 1,076
10 331 Idaho 1,787 712
11 341 Sacramento State 610 634

 

Big South

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 120 Hampton 4,204 4,051
2 191 Campbell 1,458 2,196
3 221 Winthrop 2,121 1,842
4 226 UNC Asheville 1,744 1,815
5 241 Radford 1,594 1,646
6 267 Gardner-Webb 1,110 1,311
7 268 High Point 1,181 1,295
8 293 Longwood 1,248 1,135
9 333 Charleston Southern 640 687
10 340 South Carolina Upstate 646 642
11 345 Presbyterian 387 538

 

Big Ten

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 5 Wisconsin 17,272 17,170
2 10 Nebraska 15,492 15,341
3 12 Indiana 15,590 15,206
4 13 Michigan State 14,797 14,797
5 14 Purdue 14,343 14,467
6 18 Maryland 14,675 14,009
7 19 Ohio State 13,922 13,495
8 23 Iowa 12,026 12,869
9 24 Michigan 10,871 12,505
10 25 Illinois 12,613 12,456
11 34 Minnesota 11,850 10,675
12 50 Penn State 7,197 9,046
13 77 Northwestern 6,488 6,754
14 81 Rutgers 4,759 6,240

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Big West

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 97 Hawaii 5,793 5,527
2 182 Long Beach State 2,708 2,239
3 210 UC Santa Barbara 2,123 2,007
4 224 UC Davis 2,117 1,834
5 227 Cal Poly 1,831 1,813
6 237 UC Irvine 1,844 1,663
7 303 Cal State Fullerton 1,357 1,053
8 304 Cal State Northridge 768 1,036
9 342 UC Riverside 652 630

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Colonial Athletic Association

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 117 College of Charleston 3,855 4,202
2 122 UNC Wilmington 4,264 3,962
3 138 William & Mary 3,507 3,470
4 170 James Madison 2,664 2,464
5 186 Hofstra 1,832 2,225
6 206 Delaware 2,713 2,027
7 209 Elon 1,591 2,009
8 261 Towson 1,563 1,380
9 276 Drexel 989 1,242
10 295 Northeastern 1,142 1,117

 

Conference USA

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 80 Old Dominion 6,346 6,620
2 85 Marshall 5,485 6,065
3 90 Western Kentucky 5,487 5,809
4 110 UTEP 6,155 4,677
5 129 Middle Tennessee 6,774 3,734
6 132 Charlotte 4,008 3,696
7 140 North Texas 2,644 3,364
8 149 UAB 3,729 3,037
9 156 Southern Miss 2,139 2,786
10 192 Louisiana Tech 3,447 2,170
11 225 Rice 2,295 1,818
12 271 UTSA 1,146 1,277
13 283 Florida Atlantic 1,188 1,190
14 308 FIU 1,267 994

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Horizon League

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 118 Wright State 4,304 4,145
2 136 Northern Kentucky 4,135 3,582
3 150 Oakland 3,163 3,017
4 169 Youngstown State 2,994 2,465
5 200 Green Bay 2,475 2,107
6 205 Illinois-Chicago 2,030 2,037
7 222 Detroit Mercy 1,240 1,841
8 251 Milwaukee 1,517 1,514
9 265 IUPUI 1,056 1,345
10 296 Cleveland State 1,353 1,115

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Ivy League

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 131 Penn 3,646 3,709
2 193 Princeton 2,004 2,150
3 236 Cornell 1,347 1,663
4 243 Yale 1,306 1,597
5 247 Harvard 1,511 1,550
6 249 Columbia 1,587 1,526
7 280 Brown 882 1,224
8 318 Dartmouth 868 827

 

MAAC

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 94 Siena 5,968 5,767
2 198 Monmouth 2,336 2,113
3 242 Iona 1,637 1,622
4 250 Rider 1,553 1,523
5 264 Fairfield 1,347 1,357
6 269 Marist 1,224 1,292
7 279 Quinnipiac 1,587 1,225
8 284 Canisius 1,280 1,189
9 299 Niagara 1,148 1,076
10 301 Manhattan 1,094 1,075
11 332 Saint Peter’s 649 691

 

MAC

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 98 Ohio 5,597 5,490
2 102 Buffalo 3,569 5,290
3 108 Toledo 4,239 4,771
4 119 Ball State 3,720 4,117
5 159 Kent State 2,799 2,749
6 166 Akron 2,824 2,610
7 180 Bowling Green 1,917 2,296
8 196 Central Michigan 2,131 2,124
9 203 Western Michigan 2,225 2,086
10 232 Miami (OH) 1,670 1,696
11 233 Eastern Michigan 1,524 1,692
12 298 Northern Illinois 998 1,083

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MEAC

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 157 Florida A&M 2,188 2,756
2 174 Norfolk State 1,702 2,364
3 195 Savannah State (in process of reclassifying as D-2) 1,865 2,129
4 199 North Carolina A&T State 2,278 2,108
5 245 Howard 1,312 1,569
6 248 Morgan State 2,293 1,547
7 252 Maryland Eastern Shore 1,651 1,503
8 272 North Carolina Central 1,263 1,270
9 322 Bethune-Cookman 776 786
10 328 Delaware State 654 726
11 336 Coppin State 1,146 671
12 353 South Carolina State 319 202

 

Missouri Valley

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 100 Bradley 5,699 5,429
2 101 Evansville 3,782 5,294
3 105 Illinois State 5,142 5,154
4 106 Missouri State 4,517 5,150
5 111 Southern Illinois 3,966 4,472
6 121 Indiana State 3,675 3,962
7 127 Northern Iowa 4,090 3,774
8 130 Loyola Chicago 2,404 3,712
9 142 Drake 3,195 3,322
10 165 Valparaiso 2,722 2,611

 

Mountain West

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 30 New Mexico 10,883 11,107
2 32 San Diego State 11,344 10,885
3 33 Nevada 9,048 10,878
4 54 UNLV 10,093 8,639
5 73 Utah State 6,943 6,981
6 91 Fresno State 6,032 5,807
7 107 Boise State 6,747 5,041
8 123 Wyoming 5,009 3,961
9 153 Colorado State 3,340 2,859
10 179 Air Force 2,040 2,296
11 238 San Jose State 1,695 1,658

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NEC

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 255 Wagner 1,417 1,450
2 257 Mount St. Mary’s 2,164 1,438
3 294 Saint Francis (PA) 930 1,124
4 307 Central Connecticut State 1,428 1,005
5 312 Robert Morris 765 965
6 324 Bryant 634 752
7 335 Long Island 989 679
8 338 Sacred Heart 442 648
9 344 Fairleigh Dickinson 514 567
10 346 St. Francis (Brooklyn) 458 529

 

Ohio Valley

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 99 Murray State 3,800 5,442
2 164 Belmont 2,408 2,634
3 167 Morehead State 2,912 2,531
4 168 Eastern Kentucky 1,628 2,489
5 194 Jacksonville State 2,265 2,146
6 211 Austin Peay State 1,876 1,997
7 230 Tennessee Tech 1,973 1,737
8 253 Southeast Missouri State 1,251 1,481
9 260 UT Martin 1,503 1,384
10 266 Southern Illinois-Edwardsville 1,268 1,319
11 274 Eastern Illinois 1,216 1,258
12 313 Tennessee State 1,903 965

 

Pac-12

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 21 Arizona 14,434 13,744
2 31 Utah 11,710 11,067
3 36 Arizona State 10,603 10,538
4 56 Oregon 8,348 8,531
5 59 UCLA 8,619 8,269
6 63 Washington 6,794 7,846
7 75 Colorado 7,448 6,868
8 96 California 7,375 5,627
9 104 Oregon State 5,066 5,161
10 124 Stanford 4,169 3,894
11 135 USC 4,150 3,590
12 176 Washington State 2,886 2,318

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Patriot League

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 163 Bucknell 2,668 2,635
2 235 Navy 1,580 1,671
3 263 Holy Cross 1,641 1,361
4 278 Lehigh 1,076 1,231
5 288 Lafayette 1,327 1,169
6 314 Army 1,253 932
7 325 Loyola (MD) 700 736
8 326 Boston U. 694 735
9 334 American 761 684
10 343 Colgate 653 622

 

SEC

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 2 Kentucky 21,874 21,695
2 4 Tennessee 16,209 19,034
3 11 Arkansas 16,181 15,278
4 28 South Carolina 12,617 11,472
5 37 LSU 9,029 10,536
6 38 Missouri 15,061 10,253
7 39 Alabama 13,390 10,224
8 44 Vanderbilt 9,158 9,610
9 45 Florida 9,732 9,600
10 51 Georgia 8,213 8,747
11 61 Auburn 8,221 8,156
12 62 Mississippi State 6,965 7,954
13 64 Ole Miss 6,882 7,816
14 69 Texas A&M 9,127 7,255

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Southern

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 113 East Tennessee State 4,439 4,328
2 144 UNC Greensboro 2,572 3,141
3 145 Chattanooga 3,175 3,117
4 173 Wofford 2,111 2,368
5 175 Mercer 3,054 2,358
6 215 Furman 1,604 1,933
7 246 Western Carolina 1,419 1,566
8 287 Samford 1,159 1,173
9 302 The Citadel 757 1,072
10 309 VMI 1,600 988

 

Southland

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 137 Stephen F. Austin 3,782 3,582
2 181 McNeese State 793 2,249
3 190 Lamar 1,560 2,199
4 270 Northwestern State 1,180 1,285
5 273 Abilene Christian 1,246 1,259
6 285 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 1,600 1,185
7 291 Sam Houston State 944 1,138
8 315 Central Arkansas 1,416 909
9 327 Houston Baptist 680 727
10 329 Southeastern Louisiana 837 722
11 330 New Orleans 863 719
12 347 Incarnate Word 1,095 509
13 352 Nicholls State 417 358

 

SWAC

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 187 Arkansas-Pine Bluff 3,504 2,215
2 189 Mississippi Valley State 2,343 2,203
3 219 Texas Southern 2,138 1,875
4 223 Alabama State 1,296 1,835
5 258 Southern 1,124 1,416
6 289 Grambling State 1,339 1,155
7 316 Alabama A&M 1,209 904
8 319 Jackson State 2,265 805
9 323 Prairie View A&M 1,095 776
10 339 Alcorn State 414 643

 

Summit League

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 160 South Dakota State 2,292 2,715
2 183 Omaha 2,366 2,232
3 184 North Dakota State 2,757 2,231
4 185 Oral Roberts 2,411 2,227
5 188 South Dakota 2,269 2,205
6 239 North Dakota 1,865 1,654
7 262 Purdue Fort Wayne 1,403 1,369
8 275 Denver 1,204 1,255
9 348 Western Illinois 602 466

 

Sun Belt

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 134 Louisiana 4,218 3,596
2 141 UL Monroe 1,578 3,341
3 148 Texas State 2,037 3,067
4 172 Troy 2,087 2,368
5 212 Georgia Southern 1,865 1,988
6 216 South Alabama 2,088 1,907
7 218 UT Arlington 2,344 1,881
8 231 Georgia State 1,547 1,716
9 234 UA Little Rock 2,165 1,674
10 244 Arkansas State 2,128 1,593
11 282 Coastal Carolina 1,353 1,199
12 305 Appalachian State 1,268 1,026

 

West Coast

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 27 BYU 14,230 11,958
2 87 Gonzaga 6,000 6,000
3 146 Saint Mary’s 2,984 3,085
4 202 San Francisco 1,719 2,100
5 207 Pacific 2,057 2,017
6 213 Portland 2,195 1,979
7 214 San Diego 1,817 1,953
8 217 Santa Clara 2,101 1,897
9 259 Loyola Marymount 1,238 1,388
10 297 Pepperdine 1,156 1,115

 

Western Athletic

2019 Conference Attendance Rank National Rank School 2018 Avg. Attendance 2019 Avg. Attendance
1 71 Grand Canyon 6,973 7,170
2 89 New Mexico State 5,293 5,906
3 147 California Baptist Not D-I 3,075
4 151 Utah Valley 3,412 2,932
5 162 Cal State Bakersfield 2,795 2,661
6 286 UMKC 1,210 1,179
7 292 UT Rio Grande Valley 845 1,136
8 310 Seattle 1,384 985
9 350 Chicago State 449 391

 

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