Iowa tops Div. I home attendance for 2014-15 season in Diehl survey

For 13 years, wrestling journalist and historian Denny Diehl has kept statistics on the home attendance of the Div. I wrestling programs.

In this year's survey, the University of Iowa topped the attendance figures, with a total home attendance of 55,390, for an average of 8,358.

Rounding out the top 5 in terms of average home attendance are No. 2 Penn State (7,747), No. 3 Minnesota (4,947), No. 4 Ohio State (4,947) and No. 5 Oklahoma State (3,002).

Diehl's research includes the top 20 programs, including their highest single match attendance for the year.

BEST 2014-15 DIV. I HOME ATTENDANCE (Revised 4/13/15)

		Avg	Total	High	Rival
1	Iowa	8,358	55,390	11,882	IowaSt
2	Penn St	7,747*	54,221	15,967	Iowa
3	Minnesota	4,947*	29,681	13,620	Iowa
4	Ohio St	4,387*	26,321*	6,558*	PennSt
5	Okla St	3,002	21,103	4,691	PennSt
6	Rutgers	2,697*	18,877*	6,071*	PennSt
7	Iowa St	2,369	14,216	2,929	N.Iowa
8	N. Iowa	1,946	9,729	2,100	VaTech
9	Pitt	1,751*	12,256*	7,103*	PennSt
10	Cornell	1,566	9,394	3,274	Oklahoma
11	LEHIGH	1,343	9,400	1,957	Cornell
12	Va Tech	1,266	8,315*	2,833	OhioSt
13	Maryland	1,238	9,904+	2,779+	PennSt
14	Michigan	1,208	7,246	1,830	PS/OhSt
15	Edinboro	1,186	7,113	2,753	OhioSt
16	Nebraska	1,160	6,959	1,753	Purdue
17	Oregon St	1,016	5,078	1,289	ArizSt
18	Wyoming	1,010	5,047	1,447	Nebraska
19	Missouri	840	4,201	1,502	American
20	Old Dominion	805	4,500	1,111	Missouri

        + Maryland attendance Is almost certainly its best since 1970.

Notes from Denny Diehl on this year's stats:

1.) Each asterisk below represents a new school record in that particular category.  This is believed to be the most new records in the 14-yr history of my research.  

2.) Ohio State, Rutgers and Pittsburgh established new record in all three categories. 

3.) Collectively, Div. I schools set a 14-yr record for the most schools with a home avg of 1,000 or more (18). Coupled with last year’s 15, the two-yr total of 33 is another record which vastly exceeds the prior 2-yr combined for ’12, ’13 of 25. 

4.) As everyone already knows, Iowa at Penn State drew the 2nd-largest dual crowd in NCAA history, slightly behind last season’s new record (Pitt at Penn State, 15,996)

5.) Minnesota -- which with visiting Iowa held the national record of 15,646 for six seasons – joins Iowa and Iowa State as the nation’s sole three schools with three or more home crowds over 13K.  This, thanks to another Hawkeye visit on Jan. 30 which drew 13,630. 

The Gophers now proudly own the home crowds ranked #4, 19, 23 in collegiate history. 
19 - 13,630 for #2 Minn vs. #1 Iowa in 2015, date: 2015-01-30
4 - 15,646 for #1 Minn vs. #2 Iowa in 2002, date: 2002-02-01
23 - 13,128 for #4 Minn vs. #1 Iowa in 2000, date: 2000-02-20

6.) Iowa is still the only school ever to average 8,000 or more, now seven straight years. They’ve lead the nation in 12 of 13 years of this project, all but 2005-06 (OklaSt, 3,889)

Photo of the Carver Hawkeye Arena crowd for the 2014 Iowa State at Iowa dual meet courtesy of the University of Iowa.