The contrast between South Carolina’s men’s and women’s basketball programs has rarely been more visible than it is this season, both in terms of on-court performance and the number of fans actually showing up to watch.
Dawn Staley’s women’s program continues to operate at the highest level in the country. The No. 3-ranked Gamecocks are 27-2 overall, have already clinched the SEC regular-season title, and are chasing a fourth national championship. The men’s program, by contrast, sits at 12-15 and 3-11 in the SEC, is almost certain to miss the NCAA Tournament for a second consecutive year, and has raised serious questions about the future of fourth-year head coach Lamont Paris.
The difference in fan engagement between the two programs was on full display last weekend. The men’s team hosted Mississippi State on Saturday afternoon, with an announced attendance of 10,265. Those who were inside Colonial Life Arena that day would tell you the actual number of bodies in the seats was likely closer to half that figure, as the Gamecocks picked up just their first win in over a month.
Less than 24 hours later, the same arena looked unrecognizable. Following a morning of live ESPN College GameDay coverage broadcast from the court, the women’s team tipped off in front of a capacity crowd officially announced at 18,000 — a figure that appeared to accurately reflect what was happening inside the building. South Carolina went on to win by 37 points.
What the Numbers Actually Show
Announced attendance figures at college basketball games can be misleading, as they typically reflect tickets sold or distributed rather than fans physically present. To get a clearer picture of actual turnout, an open records request was submitted seeking scanned ticket data — a more accurate measure of who genuinely walked through the doors — for all non-conference home games played by both programs.
The findings were telling. The men’s team averaged 4,372 scanned tickets across their ten non-conference home games, compared to an average announced attendance of 10,739 for those same contests — a gap of more than 6,000 per game between the official figure and reality. That announced average is nearly identical to the 10,844 average announced attendance across their seven SEC home games, suggesting the pattern is consistent throughout the season.
The women’s program drew an average of 7,448 scanned tickets across eight non-conference home games — a number that already surpasses the men’s actual attendance figures by a significant margin. The average announced attendance for those same eight women’s games was 15,778, roughly double the number of fans who actually scanned in.
It is worth noting that the women’s data does not include some of the most highly attended home games of the season — matchups against SEC opponents Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt — which would almost certainly push the averages even higher.
The bottom line is straightforward: more fans are choosing to watch South Carolina women’s basketball than the men’s program, and the gap between the two is substantial by any honest measure of actual arena attendance.
