Even with no local teams in the final 4, 17,345 fans packed into Columbus’ Nationwide Arena for Saturday evening’s championship game between the Stanford Cardinal and Texas Longhorns. That’s the 4th-largest crowd to ever see an NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball event. That’s about an 88.9% capacity of the ascribed 19,500 seats available in the arena.
- See also: Stanford Stymimes Texas Offense to Earn 2016 NCAA Title
- See also: Stanford Becomes Youngest NCAA Division I Volleyball Champions
While neither the semi-finals nor the finals drew as big of a crowd as last year’s did in the smaller CenturyLink Arena, last year had more working in its favor. Besides being in the volleyball-mad heartland of the country, the final 4 featured a game between Kansas and Nebraska. Lincoln is only like a 60 mile drive to Creighton, and Lawrence isn’t too much further away.
In fact, before Saturday night’s game, the CentruyLink Center had hosted the 5 highest-attended games in NCAA history, showing just how big the sport is in Nebraska.
Notably, this was the most-attended game in NCAA history that didn’t include Nebraska, though Texas has been involved now in each of the top 4.
Note: in final 4 scenarios, where games are played back-to-back, fans get two games for the same ticket, and as such attendance is accounted as a single number for the two games.
The top-10 games/game groups of all-time:
| ATTENDANCE | MATCHES | MATCHUP | CITY | DATE |
| 17,561 | 2015 NCAA final | Nebraska vs Texas | Omaha, NE | Dec 19, 2015 |
| 17,551 | 2015 NCAA semifinals | Nebraska vs Kansas Texas vs Minnesota |
Omaha, NE | Dec 17, 2015 |
| 17,430 | 2008 NCAA semifinals | Stanford vs Texas Penn State vs Nebraska |
Omaha, NE | Dec 18, 2008 |
| 17,345 | 2016 NCAA final | Stanford vs. Texas | Columbus, OH | Dec 17, 2016 |
| 17,209 | 2006 NCAA final | Nebraska vs Stanford | Omaha, NE | Dec 16, 2006 |
| 17,014 | 2006 NCAA semifinals | Nebraska vs UCLA Stanford vs Washington |
Omaha, NE | Dec 14, 2006 |
| 16,670 | 2016 NCAA semifinals | Stanford vs Minnesota Texas vs Nebraska |
Columbus, OH | Dec 15, 2016 |
| 16,448 | 2012 NCAA final | Texas vs Oregon | Louisville, KY | Dec 15, 2012 |
| 16,119 | 2005 NCAA regional final | Nebraska vs Florida | Omaha, NE | Dec 10, 2005 |
| 15,945 | UNC vs Maryland | UNC vs Maryland | Chapel Hill, NC | Oct 25, 2013 |
| 14,975 | 2013 NCAA semifinals | Penn State vs Washington | Seattle, WA | Dec 19, 2013 |
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