Villanova Basketball lands a spot in the 2018 Fandom 250

Villanova basketball has won the national championship in two of the past three seasons. How did their fans rank in the 2018 Fandom 250?

Each year, the FanSided network releases the Fandom 250, a ranking of the top 250 fanbases in the entire nation. This includes anything from television shows to sports teams to individual celebrities. As the 2018 year comes to a close, the newest edition of these rankings has been released. To stay within the scope of our college basketball site, it is important to mention that 25 colleges managed to land positions on this list. And to give credit to the current defending champions, Villanova (basketball) came in slotted at No. 246 in the Fandom 250.

This spot ranked 25th in the college division and that is an extremely impressive feat. While it helps, of course, that the Wildcats have cut down the nets as national champions in two of the past three seasons, it is never easy for a smaller school (compared to others on the list) to crack a list of this magnitude. Based on the criteria (legacy, fanmanship, passion, buzz, and magnitude) used to create this list, one has to assume that not only the recent on-the-court success played a factor in this role but so did the postseason accolades (National Player of the Year, three first-round NBA draft picks)

Oh, and the fans obviously played their part beautifully.

Villanova is one of the most well-respected fanbases in the nation and that is due to many reasons. For starters, they are very gracious winners. While some fanbases might aggressively brag about consistent winning and raising championship banners, these fans seem to take winning in stride and show their respect for their opponent. And I think that this has a lot to do with their leader, head coach Jay Wright, as well. One of the classiest head coaches in the country, Wright is seemingly always the first person to praise his opposition in every game.

But there are enough words written every year about Coach Wright. The fans are the focal point of this piece and they deserve credit for their efforts in cheering on the team. Of course, it always easy to fill the stands when things are going well but the Villanova fans are always loud and proud.

Villanova was the only Big East school to be represented in these rankings.

Villanova basketball deserved this ranking and possibly could have been placed even further. For more information on the rest of the Fandom 250, check out the whole list and breakdown here.