The doldrums just keep coming folks, as the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day had a new record (since we’ve been tracking this) number of games with fewer than 1,000 fans:

Number of games drawing fewer than 1,000 fans: 55

But it gets even better. There were two games this week which established a new lowest bar in college basketball attendance. TWO games drew fewer than 100 people. TWO!

The three lowest attended games of the week?

3. Grambling State vs Alabama A&M – It was an old fashioned “SWAC-off” (editorial note: looked it up, and that is not the SWAC’s preferred nomenclature), with the Grambling State Tigers winning an 81-78 nailbiter against the Bulldogs of Alabama A&M. How many were on the edge of their seats for this matchup between 3-9 Grambling and 4-6 Alabama A&M? 150 hearty souls. Most weeks, that’s good enough for the #1 spot in the lowest attended games. This isn’t most weeks.

2. Morgan State vs UC-Riverside – I will admit, after Morgan State’s recent showings, I was convinced that they would take the number one spot this week. It was the perfect storm: out of conference, distant team that had few fans that would travel, and during the holiday break. I was so sure of it I pathetically grovelled to the poor student running the Morgan State Bears’ Twitter account:

Anyone going to this game, can you please tweet us a picture of the crowd at tipoff? CC @EmptySeatsPics https://t.co/NjgPAEVIMy — AllMySportsTeamsSuck (@AMSTS) December 28, 2015

I mean, really grovelling:

Luckily for me, they capitulated (sort of), with a wonderful shot of the announced SEVENTY NINE FANS. I count 4 in the four pictures:



Those 79 fans ended up going home disappointed as UC Riverside went home with an 81-72 victory.

1. Alcorn State vs Louisiana College – My attendance forecasting was wrong, however, as I didn’t see this one coming. In their last non-conference game of the year, Alcorn State drew FIFTY ONE PEOPLE to a game against Division III Louisiana College. Adding insult to injury, this game was free for all to attend. It cost nothing and still only 51 people showed up. So few people showed up, there’s no photographic evidence that this game even happened. To boot, Alcorn State did something I don’t think has ever been done, they scored more points as a home team than there were fans in the crowd. If you have any evidence to the contrary, please leave a comment below. The stadium was 0.73% full. 51/7000. Truly amazing. I doubt that we will see anything this low again this season.

Miscellany:

Biggest group of people to see a loss at home this week: Creighton (vs Villanova), 17375.

Smallest group of people to see a win at home this week: Alcorn State (vs Louisiana College (D-III)), 51.

Smallest Power Conference attendance: Texas Tech (vs Richmond), 1,365.

Average attendance this week: 4,520 (down 1,560 (25.6%) over last week)

And of course, your full attendance numbers by game, this week with arena, capacity, and conference information as requested by our fans: