It took him 21 years, but Craig Caswell has officially seen every Division I men’s basketball teams play live. According to The Washington Post, he completed his checklist of 364 on Saturday when American lost to Lehigh in Washington D.C.
Caswell started his journey in 2002 when he attended a game between Dayton and George Washington. He fell in love with college basketball in 2008 as a freshman at Bowling Green. Being able to take in the scene of a game against Wayne State from a courtside seat gave him an unquenchable passion for the sport.
He came up with the idea of seeing every Division I men’s college basketball team while he was a student and started traveling to away games to expand his reach.
“I thought: ‘I love to travel, and I love college basketball. How feasible would it be to see every team in Division I?’ ” he told The Washington Post. “I was determined to basically consume as much college basketball as I could going forward. All the years since have involved a lot of deliberate planning to try to achieve that goal.”
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Caswell credits his wife, Jaclyn Meyer, with helping him achieve his goal. She started crossing schools off the list with him while they were dating. They would explore each school’s campus and try the local food. Their adventures included driving in snowstorms and winning courtside seats.
His tour has taken him to 131 venues and, after analyzing each one, including places of lore like Indiana’s Assembly Hall and Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium, his favorite is Pittsburgh’s Petersen Events Center because it feels ‘intimate.’ He said that the Oakland Zoo ‘is one of the most underrated student sections in all of college basketball.”
Even though Caswell has accomplished his goal, he has no plans to stop attending college basketball games.
“This feels more like a milestone than a conclusion,” he said. “I’ll still go to more basketball games this season and beyond, only now with a fresh air of confidence with this achievement under my belt.”