NCAA men’s basketball enjoyed another record-breaking year as attendance topped the 33-million mark for the first time. An all-divisions increase in sports sponsorship facilitated the jump, as did an all-time high for fans attending the Division I championship tournament.

For a complete listing of attendance statistics, click here.

Division I, which grew from 325 to 328 teams, was the only division to increase its total attendance numbers. Combined with record-setting tournament attendance, the division’s total of 28,135,901 was 429,989 more than last season’s record-breaking year.

The tournament attendance record was helped by regional site domes in Houston and Detroit, which set regional attendance records with more than 57,000 at each session in Ford Field. The total tournament attendance was 763,607, which bested the mark of 720,685 set in 1999.

For all three divisions combined, 560,453 more fans saw men’s college basketball games across the country as the total of 33,396,316 spectators broke the record of 32,835,863 set in 2007.

The average crowd for a game involving a Division I team this past season was 5,524, down 24 people a game from last year. For all NCAA teams combined, the average crowd was 2,393, which was down 56 fans a game from 2007.

Division II attendance dropped from the previous year by 56 fans per game as the division averaged 763 per contest, while the Division III average dipped slightly by four fewer per game from 2007 (426 per contest).

For the 32nd straight season, the Big Ten Conference set the standard for conference attendance as 2,517,685 fans pushed the turnstiles during the 2008 season for a 12,978 per-game average. The four other conferences that averaged more than 10,000 a game were the Southeastern, Atlantic Coast, Big East and Big 12.

The six conferences broke that their own highs for total attendance were the Big 12, Pacific-10, Atlantic 10, Colonial, Patriot and Big South. The 16-team Big East became the first to top the three-million mark last season and again stayed above that line at 3,054,190 this season.

Only one conference set an all-time high for average number of fans per game, and that was the Big 12 with 10,995 per session, which topped its previous high of 10,719 from 2007.

Four teams topped the 20,000 per-game plateau as Kentucky three-repeated as the leader in home attendance with 405,964 in 18 games for an average of 22,554 per contest. No. 2 North Carolina had 20,497 fans a game at the Smith Center, while Syracuse finished third at 20,345 and Tennessee fourth with 20,267. Kentucky has led the nation every year since 1996, except for 2005 when Syracuse briefly unseated the Wildcats from the top spot.

Eleven teams topped the 300,000 mark in total home attendance. Kentucky’s 405,964  in 18 games was topped only by Syracuse, which attracted 447,587 spectators to 22 games.

The team that was seen by the most fans in person – including home, road and neutral site games – was national champion Kansas with a total of 756,830 fans watching the Jayhawks. They were followed by North Carolina, Memphis, Syracuse and Wisconsin.

Thirty-three Division I teams saw an increase in attendance from the previous year of more than 1,000 fans per home game. Southern California attracted 8,468 spectators per game this past season, 2,670 more fans per game than last year, which was the largest single-year increase for any school. Other teams with increases of 2,000 or more were Georgetown, Davidson, Memphis and UCF.

The largest increase of all-time was by the 1994 national champion Arkansas Razorbacks, which improved by 11,159 fans per game over the previous season.

In Divisions II, Northern State reclaimed the top spot with 3,270 fans per game. The school had won the title in 2006 but was replaced last season by Central Missouri. The Wolves of Northern State totaled 58,869 spectators in 18 home dates. Morehouse was the only other school to finish above 3,000 fans a game with an average of 3,058. Last year’s leader, Central Missouri, dropped to sixth with a 2,651 average.

The top conference in Division II for the 28th consecutive year was the North Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with 204,328 spectators and a 1,946 average. The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association finished second with 1,667 fans for every home contest. The Northern Sun took third as a total of five Division II conferences averaged at least 1,000 fans per home game for the season.

In Division III, Hope took its sixth consecutive attendance title with 3,016 spectators a game and 51,278 total fans at 17 home games. Wooster finished a distance second at 1,621 fans per contest. It was the 10th title overall for Hope since the NCAA began tracking attendance for Divisions II and III in 1977.

The Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association topped all the Division III conferences with a 1,035 average per game to take its 17th consecutive attendance title. The state of Wisconsin was well represented in the top three conferences as the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin finished second and the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference took third.