South Carolina, Iowa lead women's college basketball in attendance in 2022-23 season

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NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament - Final Four — (Photo by Ben Solomon/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

Final Four competitors South Carolina and Iowa were the top two teams in women’s college basketball in attendance during the 2022-23 season in both average attendance and total attendance, according to NCAA data.

The Gamecocks were No. 1 in both categories with 220,010 total attendance and 12,942 average attendance at Colonial Life Arena. Both of those numbers were higher than what significantly higher than what the South Carolina men’s team drew for home games.

“I think there’s a huge correlation with big attendance and wins,” Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley said in a story from the Greenville News this past March. “Our fans were ahead of this. They were ahead of their time. They started supporting us well before we were winning … They made it look like a championship atmosphere before we actually started winning championships.”

The Hawkeyes were second in both with a total of 200,659 and an average of 11,143. They also sold out their last three home games of the season, including drawing 15,056 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena for a game against Indiana on Feb. 26.

Two other schools averaged over 10,000 fans per game: UConn and Iowa State. The Huskies led the nation with their home games averaging 100.86% capacity as they averaged 10,255 home fans in their 10,167-seat arena, Harry A. Gampel Pavilion.

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NC State was second at 91.62% and then Gonzaga was third at 83.59%. Iowa, Iowa State and South Carolina rounded out the top six.

National champion LSU was fifth in total attendance and sixth in average attendance.

NCAA data on attendance on its statistical website goes back to the 2012-2013 season. This season marked a number of milestones for the women’s basketball world.

Only four times prior to this season had two teams reached five-figure attendance averages, let alone get four in a single season.

The 200,000 total attendance barrier had only been broken three times — twice by South Carolina and once by Tennessee — but it had never been done by two teams during the same season.