Forgive the late nature of today’s post, as the Carter Media Enterprises blog network was experiencing some major downtime on the server. Again. Anybody out there that is knowledgeable about web hosting plans, definitely hit me up. I’m looking to make a change.

Anyway, the CIAA announced today that the conference was third overall in the nation among attendance at men’s basketball games in Division II. Right under the CIAA is the SIAC, which are incredible standings considering the size of gyms and student enrollments at many D-II HBCUs.

But have you ever wondered how the four black college conferences stack up against each other in basketball attendance? The numbers may surprise you.

SCHOOL                   GAMES         ATT.               AVG. ATT.

Benedict                      13                    37,848                2,911

Morehouse                  12                    34,546               2,879

Elizabeth City St.       11                    31,324                2,848

Virginia St.                  16                    40,747               2,547

N.C. A&T                      12                    29,318                2,443

Md.-East. Shore        11                    26,450                2,405

Jackson St.                  9                      21,491                 2,388

Florida A&M              10                    22,735                2,274

Morgan St.                  10                    22,607                2,261

Alabama St.                11                    23,549                 2,141

Mississippi Val.         10                    21,144                 2,114

Norfolk St.                  10                    20,356                 2,036

Ark.-Pine Bluff           9                      17,776                1,975

Fayetteville St.          13                    25,586                1,968

Bethune-Cookman   12                    22,623                1,885

Hampton                     11                    20,730                1,885

Grambling                   12                    21,892                 1,824

Tennessee St.             14                    25,128                 1,795

Virginia Union           9                      16,148                 1,794

Alabama A&M           13                    23,058                1,774

N.C. Central                10                    14,808                1,481

Winston-Salem           11                    16,272                1,479

Fort Valley State       12                    17016                 1,418

Texas Southern          10                    12,825               1,283

South Carolina St.     14                    16,634                1,188

Clark Atlanta               13                    14916                 1,147

Howard                          13                    14,829               1,141

Delaware St.                 11                    11,923                1,084

Johnson C Smith        14                    15188                 1,085

Bowie State                 15                    15182                   1,012

Tuskegee                      12                    12028                  1,002

Shaw                               11                    10623                  966

Prairie View                13                    12,460                 958

Savannah St.               16                    15,160                 948

Albany State               13                    11,965                 920

Miles                               13                    11,417                878

Southern U.                 13                    11,306                870

Kentucky State           14                    11538                 824

Paine                               15                    12203                814

Alcorn St.                      12                    9,640                 803

Coppin St.                       8                      6,408                801

Livingstone                   13                    7,975                613

Stillman                          12                    7350                  612

LeMoyne-Owen           14                    8515                   608

Claflin                              13                    7656                   589

Saint Augustine’s        10                    5,876                 588

Saint Paul’s                    13                    5,433                  418

Lane                                 13                    3732                   287

Some interesting trends emerge from these numbers.

  • The Division I conference champions round out the top ten of the attendance list, which is interesting as both teams were good in the 07-08 campaign.
  • We know the MEAC is a basketball conference with football loving tendencies, but who would’ve thought that bottom-dwelling UMES would be a major draw for basketball fans on the Eastern Shore? Maybe the WaWa and Wal-Mart aren’t as hot as they used to be.
  • Five of the bottom ten are in the SIAC, which clearly indicates that the conference members schools have a lot to do marketing-wise. Even scarier, three of those ten teams were in the final four for the SIAC basketball championship.
  • How about Winston-Salem? Despite having just one foot in the door on the MEAC, and a slew of financial woes, they are bringing in more than 1000 people per basketball game.

And in case you were wondering, here’s the scoop on the Division I black college basketball tournaments. The MEAC, as we know, kept afloat with 40,000-plus attending the tournament this year in Winston-Salem. Not close to CIAA numbers, but more than many expected.

We haven’t heard much about the SWAC tournament attendance numbers, and for good reason. Over the course of the four-day tournament, the SWAC brought in approximately 7,046 attendants.

That’s right. 7,046 people showed up to a Division I black college basketball tournament. So the if you’re in the minority of people that believes the SWAC actually cares about basketball, remember this startling number.

The point of all of this is to distinguish the branding power of black college basketball. For those schools fortunate enough to bring 1000 or more fans to any given home basketball game, consider the feat an opportunity to creating lasting impressions of school spirit and loyalty. For those that haven’t yet tapped into this market, consider this; there are more home games in basketball than there are in football, thus more opportunities for ticket sales and concessions.