New Mexico leads Mountain West in basketball attendance

The NCAA released its attendance numbers for this past basketball season and despite a season that ended just above .500 with a 17-15 record the New Mexico Lobos were a top-25 team for attendance this past year.

The Lobos averaged 13.030 per game at WisePies Arena The Pit for 16 games and that was good enough to be 23rd in the country, third for West Coast teams and tops in the conference.

1. New Mexico: 13,030
2. San Diego State: 12,209
3. UNLV: 11,542
4. Utah State: 8,874
5. Nevada: 6,654
6. Fresno State: 6,296
7. Boise State: 6,274
8. Wyoming: 5,481
9. Colorado State: 3,853
10. San Jose State: 1,647
11. Air Force: 1,476

Seeing the Rams as low as they were is surprising since their program has been to an NCAA Tournament in recent years, and have not had a losing season in nearly a decade all the way back in the 2008-09 season where they went 9-22.

As for the entire Mountain West they were seventh in conference attendance at 7,162 per game.

Here is how the top 10 fared.

1. Big Ten: 12,555
2. SEC: 11,144
3. ACC: 11,131
4. Big 12: 10,124
5. Big East: 9,595
6. Pacific-12: 7,731
7. Mountain West: 7,162
8. American: 6,250
9. Missouri Valley: 5,051
10. Atlantic 10: 4,852

Seeing the Mountain West ahead of the American is somewhat shocking with teams like Memphis, SMU, Cincinnati and UConn who have been solid in basketball either historically or over the past few years.

Being so close to the Pac-12 is a big deal as well, and especially since that conference was quite good last year, at least prior to their NCAA Tournament face palm.