It has become cliché to say in 49 other states it’s just basketball, but this is Indiana.
But IU basketball fans proved this winter that expression has merit.
The IU men’s basketball team saw 296,427 fans attend their games during 2023-24 season, good for the highest attendance in the Big Ten, and the sixth-highest total in the country.
Meanwhile, the IU women’s basketball team saw 175,105 attend their games, good for the second-highest in the Big Ten and the fifth-highest in the nation.
The total of nearly a half million fans (472,132) was the highest combined men’s and women’s attendance of any school in the NCAA.
It was the second straight year the IU men led the Big Ten in attendance. They’ve been top-10 nationally for three straight years.
Since Assembly Hall opened in 1971-72, the IU men have finished among the top 10 programs 40 times and led the Big Ten in that category 24 times. The Hoosiers led the nation in attendance at 16,892 during its undefeated national championship season in 1976. IU’s highest average total came in 2012-13 when 17,412 attended 19 home games for a team which was ranked No. 1 in the country the majority of the season and won the Big Ten outright title. The Hoosiers rated 5th nationally in attendance that year.
Since Teri Moren arrived in Bloomington, IU women’s basketball has seen significant attendance growth.
The program has increased its average attendance from the previous year six times under Moren out of her 10 seasons — the only exceptions were the COVID-impacted season, and the season after the WNIT championship run. This season, Indiana averaged 10,038 fans per game — it’s only the fifth time in Big Ten women’s basketball history a team has topped 10,000 fans on average. The Hoosiers averaged just 2,609 per game in Moren’s first season.
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