OSU hoops attendance lower than OU

The NCAA released 2012-2013 attendance numbers for the college basketball season on Wednesday and oh gosh, this is not good [looks away, looks down at floor, tries to type without looking, realizes this is impossible, finally looks back at the screen].

Here are the Big 12 average home attendance numbers:

1. Kansas — 16,438
2. Iowa St. — 13,393
3. Kansas St. — 12,528
4. Texas — 10,945
5. Oklahoma — 9,890
6. Oklahoma St. — 9,814
7. West Virginia — 8.752
8. Tech — 7,853
9. Baylor — 6,705
10. TCU — 4,854

Now, did Toby Keith read my post from earlier this year, realize OSU was going to close really hard with the Kansas game and the Marcus Smart effect, and snatch up the rest of OU’s season tickets to artificially enhance its conference ranking in total attendance? I don’t think we can totally rule it out…but it’s doubtful.

I know these numbers are skewed by how many people actually attend vs. how many tickets are bought and lean more heavily towards the latter, but goodness, people.

It’s not like we were talking about a team laden with Alex Webbers and Obi Muonelos, OSU had one of the five best players in the country and one of the three most exciting dunkers and the best we can do is sixth in the Big 12?

Behind Texas?

Here’s a look at OSU’s last five years.

2013: 9,814
2012: 9,239
2011: 10,447
2010: 11,585
2009: 10,031

So at least we’re on the upswing-ish!

A few other attendance notes:

• The only Big 12 teams in the top 25 nationally were Kansas (10th), Iowa St. (22nd), and Kansas St. (12,528).
• Wichita St. averaged over 10,000 — can you imagine telling 1996 OSU fan Wichita St. would one day average a higher percentage in home attendance than OSU?
• OU was the only Big 12 team to crack the “largest jump in attendance year-over-year” list. They jumped 1,365 people on average in attendance.[1. Again, not ruling out Toby here.]
• Overall college hoops attendance was down an average of 61 bodies — not a ton but not a tiny amount when you’re talking about an overall average per game of 4,921.