Current studies
Who Shows Up — and Why: Attendance Patterns in Summit League Men's Basketball
A decade of game-level data across 1,291 home games reveals how team performance, season timing, and external disruption shape fan demand across the Summit League's current member institutions.
1,291
Home games
10
Seasons
9
Programs
2,138
Conf. avg. attendance
1Attendance varies widely — a 2,200+ fan gap between top and bottom programs.
2Winning brings fans — but the relationship is more modest than expected.
3Late-season games draw significantly larger crowds — nearly double early-season averages.
4COVID-19 collapsed attendance — and the conference has been rebuilding ever since.
HBCU Football Attendance Is an Event-Driven Business
Game-level data from the SWAC and MEAC reveals how culturally significant contests shape fan demand — and why not all games are created equal.
1A clear attendance hierarchy exists — championship and classic games draw 2–4× more than non-event games.
2Classic games and rivalry matchups consistently outperform standard games in both conferences.
3Event games are 40% of the schedule but generate ~58% of all fans.
4Event characteristics predict attendance even after accounting for conference play.
Power Is Concentrating. Expansion Is a Trade-Off. And Your Tournament Matters More Than You Think.
Three seasons of conference attendance data reveal that the gap between the haves and have-nots in Division I men's basketball is widening — and that the decisions made during realignment are already showing up in the numbers.
1Power conferences captured 57.9% of all D-I attendance in 2024–25, up from 49.1% in 2022–23.
2Conference expansion is a real trade-off — and the attendance data shows exactly what it costs.
3Tournament games produce the biggest lifts for mid-major and smaller conferences.
4Trajectory tells more than a single number — three seasons show who's drifting and who's building.
5Consistent patterns emerge across all 31 conferences during a period of maximum disruption.
Booming Sport, Top-Heavy Growth: Where Women's Basketball Attendance Is — and Isn't — Going
Four decades of data show that attendance growth in Division I women's basketball is real and historic — but increasingly, the fans are concentrating at the top.
1The gap between top and non-Power conferences has never been wider.
2The Power conference advantage is real, consistent, and getting bigger every year.
3COVID hit Non-Power conferences twice as hard — and widened an existing gap.
4+835% growth since 1983–84 — but who that growth reaches is the real question.