When the NCAA issued its "Pack the House" challenge this winter, almost 200 Division I institutions responded by setting new one-game attendance marks for their women's basketball teams. One of those was Marist College, which not only broke its previous attendance record, but sold out 3,200 tickets to its Jan. 25 contest against Siena College--with a marketing budget of $0.

Marist is a strong Division I team--the Red Foxes boasted an 18-0 record heading into their "Pack the House" game and won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) title for the third year in a row this season--with good attendance at home games. But one set of fans was missing from the stands: Marist students.

"We have pretty good community support at our women's games, but we generally don't see a lot of students," says Travis Tellitocci, Assistant Athletic Director for External Affairs. "The team is great--very talented and dominating in our conference--and we wanted to show our students that. So that was our challenge."

The solution? Marist decided to tap into its sports public relations class for some innovative ideas. "As part of its curriculum, the class is responsible for running an athletic event at the end of the semester," Tellitocci says. "I thought this would be an opportunity for the students to get some real-life experience and see how hard it can be to attract new fans. They came up with some great ideas."

One of those ideas was to target campus clubs and student organizations, and reward the group that brought the most students to the game with an athletic department donation of $250 to put toward its operating budget. "Clubs are always fundraising around campus, so we thought supplementing their budgets would be a good incentive," Tellitocci says. "We also offered a pizza party, donated by the housing office, to the freshman dorm floor that brought the most students."

They planned fan incentives like free commemorative Sweet 16 T-shirts (provided by game sponsor Verizon Wireless) from the team's 2007 NCAA Tournament run for the first 1,000 fans in the door. A half-court shot contest exclusively for students at halftime gave them a chance to win tickets and hotel accommodations for the 2008 MAAC tournament in Albany. And a special student raffle at the game offered chances to win several $50 gift certificates donated by local restaurants.

But the most innovative strategy was the way the game was publicized to students. "We didn't print one flyer advertising the game," Tellitocci says. "Instead, the class started a Facebook group and even made a YouTube clip of team highlights. They also sent a lot of e-mails and worked on face-to-face contact. I think being able to have conversations about the upcoming game drew the students in and made them want to be part of the fun."

A popular radio host, Joe Daily of 92.1 Lite FM, also helped by talking about the game during his morning show. He had Head Coach Brian Giorgis on his program two days before the game, the radio station held a remote broadcast from the contest, and Daily served as Giorgis's honorary assistant coach, sitting on the bench during the game.

One thing Marist did not do was give away tickets. "I'm a strong believer in not offering free seats because I think it would have cheapened the event and what we were trying to do with this challenge," Tellitocci says. "Anyone can get people to a game by giving them free admission, but I wanted to build this promotion around the success of the women's basketball team. The squad deserved it."

Tellitocci and the sports public relations class knew they had succeeded when they found out 900 of the fans that packed the McCann Center were students. "Now the challenge that we and other athletic departments face is getting these fans to continue coming back to the games," Tellitocci says. "Obviously we wanted to pack the house for that one night, but what will keep these students coming back? We're hoping the fun atmosphere surrounding the game will bring fans back in the future."