I just received mine in the mail today and was looking at an attendance figure for men's basketball and football. We only averaged 1913 students in basketball and 5621 in football. Those were highs for the period from 2008 to last season. Football is decent, but the hoop number is very low. I'm shocked by that number.

That is certainly a factor. It's still low.

Last year the following home games were played when students were on break-

Sat 11/30 Evansville (Thanksgiving weekend)
Sat 12/14 Alabama A&M (dorms closed at noon for winter break)
Wed 12/18 UMass (winter break)
Mon 12/30 Longwood (winter break)
Sat 3/1 Kent State (dorms close at noon for spring break)

Ohio played 21 home games, 5 were possibly impacted by students not on campus. I'd really like to see attendance numbers per game. Our lowest attendance numbers overall were for the CIT games, I'm guessing student turnout was low for those as well.

Football in general draws much better than hoops. I'd guess if you compared those numbers to overall total attendance, they'd be similar in proportion. Popularity of football as a sport, ease of following just a single game a week, fewer opportunities to go, etc. probably all play into it.

Honestly, while we should always be aiming to draw more, I'm not disappointed by either of those numbers. Some people don't like sports and will never/rarely go to such events. Some people will invariably be busy or out of town who want to go, and some will have other plans.

There were ~22,600 total students at the Athens campus and of those, ~17,375 were undergrad (grad students/PHD candidates are probably less likely to attend, though some surely do). So at an average football game, roughly a quarter of the student population attended, or about a third of the undergrad population. For hoops, it is in the 8-10% range.

As mentioned, hoops suffers from break games when using an average -- I'd like to see an average for when classes are in session. Still, those seem to me like pretty solid portions of the student body to be in one place in one time as averages and not peak/typical numbers (when you consider midweek football and winter break basketball).

 

This is a curious discussion point for me.  Personally, I consider basketball to be far more entertaining to watch.  Faster game, far fewer stoppages in play, shorter game times - these are all factors that play into it for me.  Football season for me, is simply a great excuse to come to Athens to tailgate and hangout, and enjoy the fall days.  The games themselves, quite honestly, I could leave after the third quarter every week.  Part of it is a game that lasts nearly 4 hours anymore, and part of it is sitting on metal bleachers for that length of time.

I've always said that if college hoops had tailgating weather that it would be superior to college football in every way, but football has tailgating and fantastic fall weather than basketball season can't compete with in most parts of the country.

I couldn't agree more. I used to have the same feeling and liked bball way more but recently it hasn't been the same. Last year I had a blast at the first couple football games The Marshall and North Texas game especially. Bball had some good ones as well. Toledo Akron and Miami were all fun but the rest of them were kinda bland to me. I hope this changes maybe we just need to have a better year. I did have a sour taste in my mouth for a long time after that Akron OT lost that might have played a factor.

CIT and break games hurt the average big time. The break games have maybe 100 students at best there...that may be generous for the December ones.

I think student attendance is an issue at most places. I read an article that said numbers were down everywhere. Iowa went as far as to have a scholarship lottery if a student bought a season ticket package.

Obviously, there is an accelerating trend away from all big school athletics being about the University and it's students and more about public consumption (dare I say, TV) and generating revenue. The start times, the date shuffling, the endless media timeouts.

Athletic contests used to be a special campus event and something that brought people together. It is no longer special in that way. Once upon a time, games always started at 1 and were always played on Wednesday and Saturday. It was part of the academic calendar. Students were part of the consideration and a full part of the equation. That is long, long, gone and for the worse, I think. Students are certainly smart enough to realize that its no longer about them and their classmates (the athletes).

While this might be a good point, I still feel like the conference might be able do better with scheduling to account for winter and spring breaks.

If you look at the chart, our student attendance keeps going up though. I don't think anyone's saying kids aren't as interested in sports...just that they thought the MBB number would be higher. But when you consider all the games over break it doesn't shock me much at all.

The student attendance numbers say more about scheduling than anything. As I recall, way back when OU was ALWAYS going to tournaments in December and had very few home games. So, my question to the Athletic Department is: If you know the students aren't going to be there why do you schedule all these home games in December? I have to admit, now I seldom even consider going to a December home game becasue of the lack of "atmosphere".