When your team plays a big state school at home...

[Aces1982]

I am curious to know, when or if you were to play a big state school at home would there be a lot of fans for the state school in attendence?

UE plays IU tonight and there will be lots of red in the stands, maybe just as many as UE fans. If WSU played KU, would there be lots of blue in the stands? ISU(b) vs IU? CU vs Nebraska? BU and ISU(r) vs Illinois?

[CaliJay]

Can't speak for other states but when Creighton plays the Huskers at home, it is usually about 80% Jays fans at our place. Lincoln is about a 50 minute drive from Omaha.

Granted, Creighton has a much bigger fanbase than Nebraska does for bball.

[squirrel]

Over the years when Bradley played Michigan and Michigan State there were large swaths of visiting fans all around the arena. Also, when Bradley played Illinois at the Civic Center when they had Sergio McClain, Marcus Griffith and Frankie Williams all of Peoria, season tickets were sold out for that game alone. Although there were a large number of Illini fans there, I think there were a large number of non-partisan Peoria prep fans (or were cheering for Illinois because of that connection) who just had an interest in seeing the game.

[WSUbballer]

Forgive me for it's been about 10 years since the last in-state school had enough balls to come visit us, about 20 years since the flagship of all flagships has done so, so my memory may be hindered. I would use about the same ratio CaliJay just used, 80/20 WSU. There will always be speckles of blue or God-awful purple laid throughout the arena. I would say when we played at Manhattan, there would be more visiting Shocker fans present than visiting Kitten fans present at Koch. Probably much like Nebraska fans at Creighton games, it was always fun to see the Purple Bandwagon come out. They talked football throughout the game, had no clue what their players' names were, and were completely oblivious to the rules of college basketball.

The 4 or 5 schools who get a chance to get in-state schools in their gyms on a every other year basis are pretty lucky. I do envy that and commend those in-state schools for having testicles.

[Aargh]

WSU will absolutely never have to worry abou this, but..

Season tickets would be almost 100% Gold. We'd probably get students to take all their tickets, so that would be all gold.There might be 100 or so unsold season ticket spots, and there might be some other colors there, but people wearing KU or KSU colors to WSU games are often asked to visit the souvenir shop and buy some gold gear at half time - if not before.

If there were some walkup sales because students didn't buy all their tickets or if students scalped their tickets, there might be some wrong colors scattered in the student section. That might not turn out well.

[DoubleJayAlum]

Can't speak for other states but when Creighton plays the Huskers at home, it is usually about 80% Jays fans at our place. Lincoln is about a 50 minute drive from Omaha.

Granted, Creighton has a much bigger fanbase than Nebraska does for bball.

I'd echo those estimates, although it is important to point out that the Nebraska 20% is relegated to the upper bowl.

When Creighton travels to Lincoln, the place is usually about 60% Nebraska, 40% Creighton fans.

By the way Aces1982, you left Drake and UNI off of you list. Drake just played Iowa St last night, so they should be able to give you updates figures. As to any concern about the impact of the state school fans, my experience is that their mere presence only serves to ramp up the noise/smack coming from the home team, making for a great environment.

[DoubleJayAlum]

Probably much like Nebraska fans at Creighton games, it was always fun to see the Purple Bandwagon come out. They talked football throughout the game, had no clue what their players' names were, and were completely oblivious to the rules of college basketball.

Boy Baller, you hit that nail on the head!

[valleychamp]

Its has not been much of a problem for UNI in the Mcleod Center. That can probably be attributed to a) Mcleod only seating 7K, and b) the fact that we play both Iowa and ISU ever year, that it is not such a big deal for them to play at UNI. I know that last year though, there were quite a few ISU fans for the game at UNI, but that was by far the most visiting fans that we had have seen in Mcleod. And that was probably still a 70-30, 80-20 type deal at the worst.

Back when we played in the Dome, there were a lot more visiting fans because the tickets were so much more available.

[BirdmanBB]

Couldn't tell you since Illinois would never come to play at our place (even though they are 40min. away). Although I would imagine illini fans would find a way to get their hands on tickets.

I remember going to the Illinois game at BU years back. If I remember correctly, rod stewart was in attendance (in the student section?).

Two older brothers are Illinois alum. You can imagine the conversation at holiday parties. I am really hoping we get a chance to play them in Cancun. Would love to have an upset to rub in.

[Kip Dynamite]

Hell would freeze over before Mizzou played us at home. They would be way to afraid to ever take that chance.