12. The University of Alabama

The Daily Beast: Die-Hard College Hoops Fans

Merchandise rank: 2

Men's basketball RPI: 0.557

Women's basketball RPI: 0.531

Average attendance, men's basketball: 39%

Average attendance, women's basketball: 12%

Arena capacity: 15,316

(AP Photo/Dave Martin)

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Top Colleges Wit... With March Madness in full boom, The Daily Beast ranks the fans behind the teams. From Auburn to Army, at these colleges people rabidly support their basketball squads—no matter how squalid.

To find out, The Daily Beast started with a list of the 75 schools with the best merchandise sales, using the most recent quarterly data from the Collegiate Licensing Company, which represents 80 percent of the collegiate-wear market. These are schools that clearly support their colors. From these 75 schools, they then looked at average attendance for the 2010-2011 season of men’s and women’s basketball, compared to arena capacity (women’s and men’s basketball teams typically play in the same arena—in the interest of consistency they used the capacity number for the men’s arena for the few schools where women’s basketball is played in a smaller arena.)

To calculate the most enthusiastic college fans in the country, they added each school’s merchandise rank and attendance-to-arena capacity-ratio, and divided that number by each team’s Ratings Percentage Index for the 2010-2011 regular season. RPI score takes into account strength of schedule and win-loss record. The NCAA does not release RPI scores, but several trusted sources calculate RPI—for men’s basketball they used CBS Sports’ RPI scores, and for women’s basketball they used RPI scores from Collegiate Basketball News, which has supplied the Associated Press with RPI scores for more than a decade. The schools with strong merchandise sales and average attendance, despite relatively mediocre basketball performance, are those that made the list.

(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
12. The Universi... Merchandise rank: 2

Men's basketball RPI: 0.557

Women's basketball RPI: 0.531

Average attendance, men's basketball: 39%

Average attendance, women's basketball: 12%

Arena capacity: 15,316

(AP Photo/Dave Martin)
11. The Universi... Merchandise rank: 7

Men's basketball RPI: 0.575

Women's basketball RPI: 0.580

Average attendance, men's basketball: 85%

Average attendance, women's basketball: 18%

Arena capacity: 13,751

(AP Photo/Tony Ding)
10. University o... Merchandise rank: 21

Men's basketball RPI: 0.579

Women's basketball RPI: 0.494

Average attendance, men's basketball: 89%

Average attendance, women's basketball: 8%

Arena capacity: 16,618

(AP Photo/Heather Coit)
9. Oregon State ... Merchandise rank: 36

Men's basketball RPI: 0.467

Women's basketball RPI: 0.467

Average attendance, men's basketball: 59%

Average attendance, women's basketball: 14%

Arena capacity: 10,400

(AP Photo/Don Ryan)
8. University of... Merchandise rank: 5

Men's basketball RPI: 0.578

Women's basketball RPI: 0.600

Average attendance, men's basketball: 65%

Average attendance, women's basketball: 41%

Arena capacity: 10,523

(AP Photo/David Manning)
7. University of... Merchandise rank: 16

Men's basketball RPI: 0.623

Women's basketball RPI: 0.558

Average attendance, men's basketball: 100%

Average attendance, women's basketball: 33%

Arena capacity: 17,230

(AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
6. Clemson Unive... Merchandise rank: 25

Men's basketball RPI: 0.572

Women's basketball RPI: 0.509

Average attendance, men's basketball: 95%

Average attendance, women's basketball: 9%

Arena capacity: 10,000

(AP Photo/Bob Leverone)
5. Louisiana Sta... Merchandise rank: 4

Men's basketball RPI: 0.464

Women's basketball RPI: 0.585

Average attendance, men's basketball: 66%

Average attendance, women's basketball: 25%

Arena capacity: 13,472

(AP Photo/Bill Feig)
4. University of... Merchandise rank: 27

Men's basketball RPI: 0.552

Women's basketball RPI: 0.523

Average attendance, men's basketball: 92%

Average attendance, women's basketball: 30%

Arena capacity: 14,625

(AP Photo/Stacy Bengs)
3. Auburn Univer... Merchandise rank: 15

Men's basketball RPI: 0.444

Women's basketball RPI: 0.539

Average attendance, men's basketball: 69%

Average attendance, women's basketball: 33%

Arena capacity: 9,121

(AP Photo/Todd J. Van Emst)
2. University of... Merchandise rank: 10

Men's basketball RPI: 0.519

Women's basketball RPI: 0.618

Average attendance, men's basketball: 89%

Average attendance, women's basketball: 64%

Arena capacity: 12,000

(AP Photo/Alonzo Adams)
1. University of... Merchandise rank: 13

Men's basketball RPI: 0.550

Women's basketball RPI: 0.534

Average attendance, men's basketball: 73%

Average attendance, women's basketball: 54%

Arena capacity: 13,595

(AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
More on The Dail... To see more die-hard college fans that made the list, click here.