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SEC Lands 2 In Hoops Attendance Top 5

The NCAA released the attendance figures for the 2010-11 basketball season yesterday and the Southeastern Conference placed two teams in the Top 5 nationally — Kentucky and Tennessee.

The top-ranked Wildcats will no doubt draw huge crowds to Rupp Arena next year as John Calipari’s next wave of star youngsters arrive in the Bluegrass State.  But no one knows what to expect at fifth-ranked Tennessee, where the Vols have dismissed a wildly popular coach and face a year of uncertainties when it comes to NCAA sanctions and a thin roster.

The SEC by the numbers:


SEC Rank  National Rank  School  Games  Avg. Attendance 
Kentucky  15  23,603 
Tennessee  18  18,952
18  Vanderbilt  17  13,802 
29  Arkansas  19  11,884 
35  Alabama  19  10,983 
41  S. Carolina  17  10,427 
42  Florida  17  10,186 
60  Georgia  16  8,250 
74  LSU  18  7,153 
10  82  Ole Miss  17  6,360 
11  83  Auburn  20  6,324 
12  94  Miss. State  17  5,710 




Observations:

* Arkansas finished outside the Top 25 in attendance for the first time since Bud Walton Arena opened.  That likely won’t be the case next year with Mike Anderson now on the sideline.

* Kudos to South Carolina fans for finishing in the top half of the league in attendance despite a last-place finish in the SEC East.

* Florida fans should be ashamed.  Sure the O’Connell Center only seats 12,000, but Gator-backers didn’t even fill their bandbox.  Billy Donovan has won two national titles and led UF to an SEC outright title this past year.  What’s it take to pack a Florida basketball game?

* Good basketball or not, the fans at LSU, Ole Miss and Auburn were bested in attendance by schools such as Utah State, Bradley, Old Dominion and Siena.  That’s a Hall of Shame performance.

* Rick Stansbury is lucky to still have his job.  Not only did his Bulldogs wildly underachieve this year, but State’s attendance was the lowest in the league and ranked below that of UCF, St. Louis, George Mason, and Weber State.  That’s an embarrassment to the SEC.

 


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You're right, stansbury is lucky to have a job. Hopefully it gets better this year.

This is one reason why I don't understand the whole boot Vandy arguement. While Vandy may not field the best football team and does not compete with the same resources, Vandy is in the top half of the league in every other sport. The SEC does not need another football team that expects to win championships every year. There are already 6 programs that their goal every year is to win the SEC, and anything short of that is considered a down year. Those programs are UF, UT, UGA, Bama, Auburn and LSU. Then you have SoCar and Ark that are trying to get into that mix. Basically you have 6-8 schools that want the championship each year. If all 8 schools won a championship in a decade, that would leave only two schools with a 2nd title in ten years. Name one of those programs where a coach can coach for 10 years and not win a SEC Championship and keep their job. It did not happen at UT. Look at the heat at LSU and UGA, two successful coaches that are feeling pressure because they did not win last year. So the SEC needs the Vandy's in football in order to keep the big 6-8 happy.

People who want to push Vanderbilt out of the conference believe basketball is not a real sport. If Franklin can make Vanderbilt competitive it could cause some hand ringing in the conference. Can you imagine a Vanderbilt upset that takes an SEC out of the title race. You are right I don't think the anti Vandy crowd wants a Georgia Tech or Florida state keeping there team out of the national championship game every year.

The numbers change drastically when one consders capacity;

SEC Rank CapacitySEC Rank  #sNational Rank School Games  Avg. Attendance  Capacity % Capacity
11 1 Kentucky 15  23,603 24,000 98.35%
23 18 Vanderbilt 17  13,802 14,168 97.42%
32 5 Tennesse 18  18,952 21,678 87.43%
47 42 Florida 17  10,186 12,000 84.88%
58 60 Georgia 16  8,250 10,523 78.40%
65 35 Alabama 19  10,983 15,383 71.40%
710 82 Ole Miss 17  6,390 9,061 70.52%
811 83 Auburn 20  6,324 9,600 65.88%
94 29 Arkansas 19  11,884 19,200 61.90%
106 41 S. Carolina17  10,427 18,000 57.93%
119 74 LSU 18  7,153 13,47253.10%
1212 94 Miss. State 17  5,710 11,000 51.91%

Total 133,664 178,085 75.06%

Mike...

In our view, there is no reason for any SEC school to be outdrawn by the likes of Siena. Nor is there a reason for first-place (in the East) Florida to draw fewer fans per game than sixth-place (in the East) South Carolina.

Just our take.

Thanks for reading,
John

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