June 25, 2004

Basketball Teams Among Attendance Leaders

Lopers in Top 10; Outdraw Most D1 Schools

            Kearney, NE – Both Nebraska-Kearney basketball teams ranked in the top 10 nationally in attendance for the 2003-04 season.

            The NCAA recently released season attendance figures for all Divisions.

            On the men’s side, UNK ranked third in the nation with an average of 3,324 per game while the Loper women had the ninth highest average at 1,794.

            In raw numbers, the men brought 46,531 fans to the Health & Sports Center for 14 games while the women had 26,910 fans attend its 15 home games.

            UNK joined Augustana (S.D.), South Dakota and South Dakota State as the only Division II schools to rank in the top 10 on both sides.

            SDSU, which is moving to Division I this year, had the highest average in Division II for both the men (3,375) and women (2,484).

            By way of comparison, UNK’s men’s team has a higher average than 170 Division I teams, including Houston, Miami, San Jose State and Rice.

            The Loper women’s average would put them 66th on the Division I list as UNK outdraws such schools as Creighton, UCLA, USC, Florida, and Kansas.

            In 2002-03, the Loper men, thanks to hosting three NCAA Tournament games, led Division II in attendance (3,839) while the UNK women were at 1,855 for the season. 

            For more information, go to www.ncaa.org.