Quote Originally Posted by Professor Chaos View Post
So you're saying those are a bunch of Iowa and Nebraska football fans who are dressed in blue filling up the Premier Center in early March?

FWIW, I fully admit that the answer I'm looking for is essentially is the same answer I'd have to give if asked "How does NDSU bring 15K+ to Frisco in early January but can't muster more than a few hundred to Sioux Falls in early March?"

EDIT: Saw your edit. We're in agreement. NDSU is a football school and SDSU is a basketball school. Is it what it is and unfortunately the "2nd program" at each gets crap for support.
Also, the question posed was what advantage does ndsu have that most of the FCS does not. I fully admitted SDSU has a similar advantage just not to the same extent due to being in its own state. The majority of FCS schools do not have that. And downplaying the significance of the difference between Iowa/Nebraska fans and Minnesota fans being your neighbors, never mind how much closer Lincoln is to Sioux Falls than the cities to Fargo, is either never being around that type of area before or just willful ignorance tbh. However, SDSU is fully capable of having enough fans to fill the Dana regularly, we haven’t built a culture to do it yet because we just got real good under a decade ago. Ndsu has that advantage because your fan base grew up going to ndsu games (ala IBY), which is also a benefit of no close P5. You (ndsu fans) grew up following ndsu for a good chunk of them, whereas a lot of SDSU fans grew up following a P5 team and SDSU on the side at best. It’s going to take some time.