Jayce Davis, Southern Utah University
Among the schools with men's basketball teams categorized as Division 1 teams by the NCAA, average attendance per game in the 2015-16 season varied from 436 at the lowest (Bryant University, Northeast Conference) to 23,361 (University of Kentucky, Southeastern Conference). There are many characteristics of both the team and the university or college that cause this wide range in their average attendances. The objective of this project is to explore some of the differences between universities and colleges that cause the disparities in the average attendance of their men's basketball games at home. In this study, I analyze the effects of some variables that represent the team's current success, some measure of their historical performance, the size of the school, and other variables that I believe are good indicators of the types of things that influence potential attendees' choices. I find that some of the most important factors relating to a team's attendance are their NCAA conference, their student body size, and how many times in recent years they have competed in the NCAA tournament.