Nathan Hart

So I'm stealing from ESPN.com's Pat Forde (see his story from last year) to analyze the college basketball attendance figures (released today by the NCAA). Forde's formula was simple: difference between fan performance vs. team performance. Thus, like Forde, I took the average attendance percent capacity with the team's win percentage.

Take IU, for example. The Hoosiers averaged 15,296 fans (with Assembly Hall's capacity of 17,456) - so a .876 attendance capacity average. The win-loss record (10-21) was .323 percent. The difference? +.556

As Forde pointed out, there are a few flaws in this system (read his article for explanation), but it was fun to calculate nonetheless. For my unscientific survey, I calculated the numbers for the top 50 teams in attendance, along with any team that finished the 2009-2010 season in the top 25 and all Big 10 schools.

IU finds itself - once again - at the top of the list. From the schools I surveyed, here's the top 10 (most of them teams that didn't do so well in '09-'10 - and five of them Big 10 schools):

  1. Indiana (.876 attendance - .323 win percentage = +.556)

  2. Oklahoma (.923 - .42 = +.504)

  3. Arizona (.950 - .52 = +.430)

  4. Louisville (1.04 - .61 = +.425)

  5. Iowa State (.886 - .47 = +.416)

  6. Michigan (.863 - .47 = +.394)

  7. Minnesota (.919 - .6 = +.320)

  8. Illinois (.895 - .58 = +.315)

  9. Clemson (.970 - .66 = +.311)

  10. Iowa (.616 - .31 = +.307)

Some notable teams that finished on the negative side (i.e. better win percentage than attendance percentage) included the following:

  • Ohio State (-.041; the Buckeyes filled Value City Arena to 74 percent average capacity)

  • Baylor (-.055; the highest-ranked large school team with a negative number minus the Carrier Dome)

  • UNLV, BYU, New Mexico (three non-BCS schools with large arenas)

  • Syracuse, Georgetown (due to too-big (?) arenas)

  • Butler (filled Hinkle Fieldhouse to an average 62 percent capacity for home games)

Forde's argument last year was a high number might mean you go to a hoops school (IU, for example). But with that top 10 list, there are a few on there that I would definitely not consider a hoops school.

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