BYU basketball: Cougars ranked 14th in national attendance

The NCAA released its official 2017 attendance numbers this week and BYU basketball was near the very top of the list.

BYU basketball finished No. 14 in the NCAA’s attendance report from last season.

The Cougars finished with 260,569 total people coming to the Marriott Center – an average of 14,476 per game.

They trailed perennial powerhouses like Kentucky (1), Syracuse (2), Louisville (3), North Carolina (4) and Kansas (8) – among some other schools.

BYU basketball was also the best in the west, narrowly beating out Arizona, who finished with an average of 14,410 people per game. San Diego State was the only other team in the west to finish in the top 25.

While it’s clear that crowd size isn’t everything (Gonzaga averaged 6,000 fans per game), it is certainly impressive to see what BYU basketball fans bring to the table, even when the team is struggling.

While some may roll their eyes, that’s a powerful recruiting tool. To be able to show high school kids an arena with nearly 15,000 people losing their minds is impressive.

Next: What Kajon Brown Brings To BYU

It goes to show that BYU basketball will always have an audience – and a big one at that.

It really goes without saying, but BYU basketball was also No. 1 among mid-major schools in attendance, beating out Dayton by nearly 15,000 on average.

This season I’d expect similar numbers for the Cougars. Last year ended on a sour note, but people are still excited to watch the development of TJ Haws and Yoeli Childs. Not to mention there are plenty of new faces on the roster fans want to see.

Dave Rose will have his work cut out for him. He just lost the best player on his roster to Italy. But, he’s put in a ton of work this offseason, rebuilding the staff and the roster.