PSU's remote location doesn't help. Driving 2+ hrs to an October football game is a lot different than driving 2+ hours in the winter for a basketball game.
That said I believe attendance would be at least 30% higher if we had a more competitive team. I recall having some good crowds during the Talor Battle years.
The remote location is just another factor in the challenge. Looking at our last two NCAA caliber teams, here are the numbers down the stretch...
Saturday 1/11/20 - ranked 20th hosting Wisconsin - 10,139
Saturday 1/18/20 - Ohio St (Thon Game) - 14,785
Wednesday 1/29/20 - ranked 24th hosting Indiana - 7,656
Saturday 2/8/20 - ranked 22 hosting Minnesota - 15,261 (bravo)
Saturday 2/15/20 - ranked 13th hosting Northwestern - 14,402
Tuesday 2/18/20 - ranked 9th hosting Illinois - 9,506 (really disappointing)
Wednesday 2/26/20 - ranked 16th hosting Rutgers - 8,345
Tuesday 3/3/20 - ranked 20th hosting 16th Michigan St - 13,437
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Wednesday 1/11/23 - Indiana - 8,502
Saturday 1/21/23 - Nebraska - 11,297
Sunday 1/29/23 - Michigan - 12,047
Wednesday 2/8/23 - Wisconsin - 7,213
Tuesday 2/14/23 - Illinois - 7,297
Sunday 2/26/23 - Rutgers - 12,082
Sunday 3/5/23 - hosting 21st Maryland - 10,672 (really disappointing)
There isn't another team in the conference outside of Northwestern that has this many empty seats in their building as they're pushing for an NCAA bid. There are many factors here (BJC too big, fanbase too spread out for weeknight games, lack of fans that make attending basketball games a priority, etc)...but they are factors that no one other than Northwestern faces (and it's that much tougher to recruit bringing high school kids into a morgue when our peers have packed houses night in and night out, most even in their down years).