Student Sections: Quantity vs. Quality

Student sections are synonymous with college basketball in today’s world. They provide a unique atmosphere that can affect the outcome of a game. They are constantly being compared to other student sections to determine who the best is and what makes them the best. It is very hard to compare one to another because each is so unique. One factor that attributes to is their size. But how important is the size a student section’s value?

This is a question I began to ask myself a couple weeks ago when the University of Pittsburgh was host to Espn’s Gameday program. Pitt is home to the Oakland Zoo which is arguably one of the best student sections in the country. In the days following Espn’s Gameday program I read an article praising the Oakland Zoo on reaching full capacity. Full capacity for the Zoo is 1,200 students. I found this to be a very low number due to the fact I recalled hearing Utah State’s student section capacity to be around 3,200. Curious that I remembered an incorrect number, I contacted Ryan Baylis, ASUSU Athletics VP, who was able to confirm the actual number to be 4,000.

These numbers intrigued me to see how Utah State’s student section capacity compared to other top student sections across the country. I quickly learned that the figures for student sections are not widely available but I was still able to collect a fair number. To compare these capacities I calculated the percentage of seats delegated to students compared to the total number of seats in the schools respective arena. I also used the largest number I could find for each school because some schools had multiple reported values.

                
Utah State has one of the highest values that I could find which is very impressive to me. While I don’t believe that the size of a student section represents the quality of the student section, I do believe that size contributes significantly to the noise level. The Spectrum is one of the loudest arenas in all of college basketball and I believe that these numbers show that.


The most interesting thing I found about these stats is that Duke has such a small percent of students. I included both the max reported value and the average value for Duke because the Cameron Crazies are constantly credited with being the best student section in the nation. Ohio State and Pittsburgh also have top student sections but both have percentages similar to Duke.

In my opinion Duke’s small capacity for students is an advantage to them. Students are forced to be dedicated if they want to attend any of Duke’s home games. For the majority of their games, students camp out multiple nights prior to guarantee them a spot in the student section. Because this dedication is needed I believe that the true fans are in the student section. In addition, the best atmosphere in the Spectrum this year was during the game against BYU. Students camped out nights prior to this game or waited in very long lines just to get in. This time spent leading up to the game gave student time to build excitement and prepare for the game. This dedication contributed to the fantastic atmosphere.


Lately Utah State’s student section has been ridiculed because it is not at same level it has been in prior years. Many people credit this to the fact that the basketball team is struggling, I also believe is the major contributing factor. I would love to see the Cameron Crazies quality during an off year to see how they are affected and if they are not affected as much due to their smaller size. I would also love to see what the Cameron Crazies would be like if they were 4,000 strong. It is much harder to get 4,000 students to be as dedicated as 1,000. We may never see these things happen but they are interesting situations to think about.

While Utah State is definitely having an off year, I undoubtedly believe that we have one of the best student sections in the country. Our quality rivals those of the well know student sections. The fact that we have size on our side is definitely an advantage if the dedication is there. I cannot wait to experience the magic of the Spectrum in the years to come and watch our student section continue to grow.


What do you think? How big of a factor does size relate to the quality of student section?