USC a big draw on the road

Boyd Nation, whose Boyd's World Web site (link below and at right) is a college baseball agate nut's Xanadu, noted the University of South Carolina led the nation in 2008 in "draw" -- the boost a particular team gives on its opponents' average home attendance.

In a post on the Rivals.com's College Baseball Clubhouse board, Nation's figures show attendance for the Gamecocks' 20 road games exceeded their opponents average home attendance by 210.9 percent.

One factor in that: the Gamecocks' only six non-conference road games before the Raleigh Regional were all against other State teams (2 at Clemson, 1 vs. Furman at Greenville's Fluor Field at the West End, 1 at College Charleston, 1 at The Citadel and 1 at Wofford). Since USC travels well and has a statewide following, all exceeded the opponent's home attendance average by anywhere from 133 to more than 800 percent.

It sounds complicated, but reading the information at the below link makes it easier to understand.

Clemson came 18th on the list at 148.9 percent of an opponents home average.

Seven SEC teams and five ACC teams were in the top 25 in the category.

Thanks to Boyd for giving me permission to share his research on this blog.

Attendance impact

Boyd's World