Courtesy of FHSU Athletics
INDIANAPOLIS – Fort Hays State Men’s Basketball ranked among the top five nationally in attendance for the fourth consecutive year in 2016-17 as the NCAA official basketball attendance numbers were released on Tuesday (Aug. 9). FHSU ranked fourth in 2016-17, averaging 2,557 fans per game and was one of only three NCAA Division II schools to have more than 38,000 total fans attend home contests (joining Northern State and Augustana) for the season.
Northern State (S.D.) was the national leader once again in 2016-17, averaging 3,552 fans per game. Augustana (S.D.) had an average of 2,661 fans watch its home contests to rank second for the third straight year. Dixie State (Utah) was third at 2,660 fans per game. Four of the top five schools in attendance are from the Central Region in NCAA Division II.
Fort Hays State led the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association in attendance. Four MIAA schools ranked inside the top 10, making the MIAA the top attended conference in the nation for the eighth consecutive year. The Central Region of Division II boasts the top two conferences in attendance, with the MIAA at 1,307 fans per game and the NSIC at 1,157 per game.
Fort Hays State is up one spot on the national list this year after ranking fifth on the average attendance list last year. The two years prior to that, FHSU ranked third on the list. FHSU continued its run of averaging more than 2,000 fans per game for the ninth consecutive season. This is the eighth consecutive year that FHSU has been among the top 10 nationally in attendance, going back to the 2009-10 season. Fort Hays State led the MIAA in average attendance in conference games only, averaging 3,027 per MIAA contest, where Central Missouri ranked second in that category at 2,271 per game.
The large crowds at Gross Memorial Coliseum once again created a home-court advantage. The coliseum is annually one of the toughest venues on opponents, where FHSU has a record of 348-58 since joining NCAA Division II, winning 85.7 percent of its games. The overall record for FHSU at the coliseum of 582-111 is equally as impressive, an 84 percent win percentage. The Tigers have reached at least 10 home wins in 39 of 44 seasons in the Coliseum. FHSU went undefeated at home four times in that span. In the school’s 26-year NCAA Division II history, FHSU produced at least 11 wins at home in all but three seasons.
Below is a link to the NCAA Division II top 30 attendance figures for the 2016-17 season.