Who has the best fanbase?

[fellahmuskie]

Having thought this through a little more, I would say there is a top 4 of Marq, Creighton, Xavier and Nova, middle 3 of St John's, Providence and Butler, then Seton Hall, Georgetown and DePaul in that order.

I guess I am most impressed by Marquette because despite a pretty tough stretch since the BE reformed, they continue to draw well in a big arena, unlike Georgetown, for example.

I'm trying to think about this over the period since the BE reformed, but it's so subjective and there are a ton of factors to consider. I have been impressed by how many sju fans there are on here and would love for them to be a regular top-25 team. That would do so much for the conference.

[butlerguy03]

I'm a Butler fan (obviously) and I think our fan-base overall is probably in that 4-6 range. However, our diehards are what you would consider the stereotypical Indiana basketball fan. I'm biased, but I'd like to think our fans are some of the most basketball literate.

[TheBasketballOpinion]

Having thought this through a little more, I would say there is a top 4 of Marq, Creighton, Xavier and Nova, middle 3 of St John's, Providence and Butler, then Seton Hall, Georgetown and DePaul in that order.

I guess I am most impressed by Marquette because despite a pretty tough stretch since the BE reformed, they continue to draw well in a big arena, unlike Georgetown, for example.

I'm trying to think about this over the period since the BE reformed, but it's so subjective and there are a ton of factors to consider. I have been impressed by how many sju fans there are on here and would love for them to be a regular top-25 team. That would do so much for the conference.

The shitty non-conference schedule contributed to a lower than average attendance for Georgetown. Just ran through the numbers via the score:

Attendance
4,189.00
5,270.00
6,788.00
4,912.00
4,011.00
6,763.00
4,205.00
5,189.00
7,519.00
11,115.00
10,113.00
7,945.00
5,230.00
7,636.00
13,345.00
11,624.00
5,176.00
13,753.00 (Seton Hall game that had tourney implications)
AVG 7,487.94

This upcoming season should have a higher average with the team being a lot better and more marquee teams swinging through DC.

[DanofXav76]

1) Marquette ( Was in Milwaukee for National Marquette Day two years ago, quite impressive. Also i kind of owe this #1 to Al).
2) Villanova ( Two NC in three years have not made their fan base complacent. Philadelphia rabid fans with class (meant as a compliment)
3) Xavier (Cintas crowd is great but there is room for improvement. Students do a great job of bringing it every game. Would like to see the crowd get loud more than a couple of times per game. Average attendance equals Capacity+)
4) Creighton ( Passionate fans who stick with their team in good times and bad. I think like X fans still getting used to their new penthouse digs).
5) Butler (Their back to back National title games brought this fan base a long way in a hurry. Still feels like they suffer a bit being in the shadow of IU, Purdue and even ND. Also agree most of fan base on the high end with their basketball IQ).
6) Providence (feels like Big Ed, recent BE reboot and bright future has energized the faithful here. The Dunk rocks and better results in future NCAA tourneys will continue this momentum).
7) Georgetown (Sleeping Giant (pun intended) is just about ready to retake their lofty place in the pecking order of things. A bit of a hangover from the last few JT3 years, Patrick may have them rolling sooner rather than later).
8) Seton Hall ( they probably deserve to be up at least a couple of spots but couldn't figure out how to do that. I know Willard is not exactly beloved there but has weathered past storms and some better luck in future NCAA's will help the cause).
9) St.Johns (favorite son CM didn't work out like all hoped. Damn! Large knowledgeable fan base just aching for something to get excited about. Oh did I mention that NYC is basketball crazy? The Knicks sure ain't doing it for them).
10) DePaul (Signs of life slowly emerging finally after last season. I'm sure I speak for most BE fans that a revitalized DePaul in Chicago would be a good thing for all of us. The new arena is a giant step in the right direction).

P.S. I've had fun going through some of the posts on the UCONN Boneyard. Very interesting stuff right there!.

[MullinMayhem]

Um...Seton Hall above us? You can go most of your life not seeing any stickers on cars or gear for SHU. That's in the NYC metro area too. I see countless SJ stickers, SJ shirts, hats, etc. by comparison. People forget SJ has like 25,000 students and we have a big alumni base. SHU has what, 10k students total? SJ has 20k+ and a much bigger brand.

Last year pretty much every game at MSG was a sellout or near sellout. Games at CA were near sellouts and some were sellouts. We have a very large fanbase that is starting to wake up again evidenced by last year. We are by far the most loyal sitting through many years of mediocrity and failure. On number of fans alone, SJ has to be top 3 or 4 but definitely top half in the conference.

[DanofXav76]

My apologies Mr Mayhem.I didn't mean to offend you or my other St. John friends here. I appreciate the local lesson in NYC Metro Hoops culture there as I was truly clueless (although I'm quite impressed with the activity on the Redmen Board). I think I'm guilty of confusing your recent on court woes with the obvious passion of the fan base. Lastly one serious question for you. Any plans on changing your handle with the recent coaching change?

[ecasadoSBU]

Um...Seton Hall above us? You can go most of your life not seeing any stickers on cars or gear for SHU. That's in the NYC metro area too. I see countless SJ stickers, SJ shirts, hats, etc. by comparison. People forget SJ has like 25,000 students and we have a big alumni base. SHU has what, 10k students total? SJ has 20k+ and a much bigger brand.

Last year pretty much every game at MSG was a sellout or near sellout. Games at CA were near sellouts and some were sellouts. We have a very large fanbase that is starting to wake up again evidenced by last year. We are by far the most loyal sitting through many years of mediocrity and failure. On number of fans alone, SJ has to be top 3 or 4 but definitely top half in the conference.

actually. I don't think that's true. If you cross the GWB to NJ you will often see SHU/RU stickers. I see them all the time when I travel from the Bronx to Jersey City. In my case, it's been very rare to see a SJ sticker anywhere in the Bronx/Manhattan. I guess it comes down to what area of this massive metro region you hang out in

[ThrowDownDBrown]

Schools that are in cities without other competition can get a major bump from it. Think Creighton and Marquette. Not other major college in the city that is pulling fans away. Their state colleges are in other towns so the locals can more comfortably cheer for both.

On the other hand Xavier is in a major city but shares it with a a major public college. I think it makes Xavier's fanbase impressive as they don't really have many bandwagon fans, most of those are either UC, UK, ND, OSU or fans of other large schools close to the area. Butler is in the middle as they don't have a major university in Indy but the majority of the cities population are either IU or Purdue fans. They have a core of great fans as well but it's just not as big or consistent at going to games as Xavier's.

On the other hand if you're in a major city and aren't very good your fanbase can really fluctuate. Think of Georgetown and St John's here. When those teams are good the casual fans hop on their bandwagon but when they're not good they aren't coming to games. Depaul could also be in this category but they've been down for so long most of us don't remember Chicago getting behind their team. Nova would fall into this category but obviously has been the clear best team in their city for decades. They certainly have some bandwagon fans without connections to the school but they've been good for so long these guys are just fans now. It would multiple consecutive bad years for Nova's fanbase to fall to the point of Gtown's or St John's.

Finally you have Providence and Seton Hall. They are located in cities that are close to major cities (NYC and Boston) but aren't in the major city, so I don't think they get the benefit of the large amount of potential bandwagon fans. They also have only recently gotten back to being solid tournament teams so they don't have the decade plus of success to build up a better fanbase. Solid fanbases for these two schools but not good or big enough to be near the top.

Having said all of that here are my rankings:

1. Marquette
2. Nova
3. Creighton
4. Xavier
5. Butler
6. Providence
7. St. John's
8. Seton Hall
9. Gtown
10. Depaul

[adoraz]

Yeah... most of you guys are rating St. John's way too low. We averaged 16.5K at MSG this past year and CA caps at around 5.8K (basically always sold out). This is all despite us having been one of the worst performing teams (ahead of only DePaul) over the past 2 decades.

Currently we are third in the HLOH poll for which team fans here support, and I think that's a fair indication of where we actually stand. Our fans are top half of the conference for sure, in both size and enthusiasm. Check out how active Redmen or #sjubb Twitter are and see for yourself.

[Hall2012]

Um...Seton Hall above us? You can go most of your life not seeing any stickers on cars or gear for SHU. That's in the NYC metro area too. I see countless SJ stickers, SJ shirts, hats, etc. by comparison. People forget SJ has like 25,000 students and we have a big alumni base. SHU has what, 10k students total? SJ has 20k+ and a much bigger brand.

Last year pretty much every game at MSG was a sellout or near sellout. Games at CA were near sellouts and some were sellouts. We have a very large fanbase that is starting to wake up again evidenced by last year. We are by far the most loyal sitting through many years of mediocrity and failure. On number of fans alone, SJ has to be top 3 or 4 but definitely top half in the conference.

Thanks for the laugh