I actually only ate the mustard-based BBQ until I moved to North Carolina. I really enjoyed the vinegar-based-sauce here. That said..... my friends here tried the mustard based and all of them liked it better than the vinegar based they were used to. They switched to mustard based and I switched to vinegar based. Explain that....
The answer is below, but perhaps in the eye of the beholder:
| as of 2/26/24 | Home Games | True Road Games | All Games |
| NCAA Record 16,565* | NCAA Record 8,424^ | NCAA Record 12,164* | |
| S. Carolina 2023-24 | 16,381 | 6,473 | 11,562 |
| S. Carolina notes | 4 home sell outs | 1/11 road sell out (LSU) | |
| Iowa 2023-24 | 14,998 | 13,410 | 13,201 |
| Iowa notes | season sold out | 10/10** road sell outs | |
| ** Wisc & Neb announced sell outs, but sold < capacity b/c of general admission ticket concerns | |||
| Colonial Life Capacity | 18,000 | ||
| Carver-Hawkeye Capacity | 14,998 | ||
| *1999 TENN | Catchings /Holdsclaw | ||
| ^2012 Baylor | Brittney Griner |
The magnitude of the increase for the Big Ten Tourney this year is crazy. Last year's championship game in the Target Center drew 9,505, and last year's tourney drew 47,923, both records for the Big Ten. Media reports say the Big Ten has sold 109,000 tickets for this year's tourney in the Target Center in Minneapolis.
Similar to "Pavlov's Dog" hearing the bell and his saliva starting, I read "Carolina" and think NORTH CAROLINA, not Little Carolina, (Thank you for that conditioning all you NC residents!) so, please use SC when referring to the Gamecocks. SC has led the NCAA in HOME attendance for the last 8 years (soon to be 9) but as @visitingcock has noted, not only will Iowa with the total attendance this year, Iowa has a change to break the ALL TIME HOME and AWAY attendance record currently held by Tennessee in 2008 with 445,925 in 38 games (averaging 11,735).
The NCAA always ranks home attendance by average attendance, but sometimes ranks total attendance by average, and sometimes by total number. For example, last year the NCAA ranked South Carolina first in total attendance, because they had the highest average, even though Iowa played 1 more game and had higher nominal total attendance. But in some other years, the NCAA has ranked total attendance using total nominal attendance, rather than per-game average, in which case one of the title game participants is usually ranked first.
And as soon as Clark leaves, they will return to irrelevance
"Irrelevance" might be a bit harsh since they had Top Ten attendance beginning in the Gustaffson era before Clerk, but I agree that it will drop after she leaves. They will probably drop down to about 4th or 5th in home attendance next year (below SCar, UConn, LSU and maybe Iowa State). It may dwindle on down in the following years to top ten or top 20 where it was prior to Gustaffson. Depends on how competitive they remain in the Big 10. I don't think they will ever approach this level again - but who knows? Maybe they will get another star to carry them.