For the second time in NCAA men’s basketball history, overall attendance for all divisions from the 2008-09 season topped the 33-million mark and finished behind only the record-setting numbers of 2007-08.

Despite hard economic times, a total of 33,111,020 people passed through turnstiles across the nation this year, just a slight drop of 28 fans per game from the previous year.

The 27,767,111 fans for Division I games were also the second-highest all-time for that division. Divisions II and III enjoyed increased attendance from the previous year and as more schools join the NCAA, the number of games continue to go up as a record 14,003 sessions involved at least one NCAA school this past season.

With the help of Detroit’s record-setting Final Four attendance of 146,378 for two sessions, Division I tournament attendance finished the sixth highest ever with 708,296 fans over the course of 35 sessions.

Reclassifying teams, or schools moving from one NCAA division to another, accounted for 335 home games and an attendance of 257,173 fans.

For the 33rd straight season, the Big Ten Conference set the standard for conference attendance as 2,416,234 fans pushed the turnstiles during the 2009 season for a 12,519 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.

Three conferences broke their own personal highs for total attendance as the SEC hit 2,638,852, the Missouri Valley had 1,341,151 and the West Coast saw 332,532 fans at their games. For the third straight season the 16-team Big East topped the three-million mark with 3,079,561 this season.

Only one conference set an all-time personal high for average number of fans per game and that was the Pacific-10 with 8,541 per session, which topped its previous high of 8,524 from 2007.

Among all 330 Division I teams in home attendance, four teams topped the 20,000 per-game plateau. Kentucky repeated as the leader for the fourth straight year with 422,547 fans attending 19 games in Rupp Arena for an average of 22,239 per contest. No. 2 Syracuse averaged 21,044 fans at the Carrier Dome to edge North Carolina’s 21,035 fans per game at the Smith Center. Tennessee finished fourth with 20,483, while Louisville rounded out the top five with 19,397. Kentucky has led the nation every year since 1996 except for 2005 when Syracuse briefly unseated the Wildcats from the top spot.

The team that was seen by the most fans in person – including home, road and neutral site games – was national champion North Carolina with a total of 754,241 fans. The Tar Heels were followed by Syracuse, national runner-up Michigan State, Kentucky and Louisville.

Sixteen Division I teams saw an increase in attendance from the previous year of more than 1,000 fans per home game. Texas Tech attracted 9,493 spectators per game this past season – 2,330 more fans per game – to lead the way for the largest increase in 2009. The only other team with an increase of 2,000 or more was Oakland.

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

Divisions II and III

Northern State again took the top spot in Division II attendance with 4,735 fans per game. The school has won the title three of the last four seasons with the only interruption by Central Missouri in 2007. The Wolves of Northern State totaled 71,024 spectators in 15 home dates. St. Cloud State was the only other school to finish above 3,000 fans a game with an average of 3,316. Central Missouri finished third with a 2,982 average.

In Division III, Hope took its seventh consecutive attendance title with 2,696 spectators a game and 43,139 total fans at 16 home games. Calvin finished second at 2,553 fans per contest while Pomona-Pitzer was third at 2,269. It was the 11th title overall for Hope since the NCAA began tracking attendance for Divisions II and III in 1977.

For the first time in 29 years, there is a new Division II conference champion as the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association took the top spot at 1,707 fans a game. The winner for the past 28 years was the North Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, which disbanded at the end of the last school year. The Northern Sun took second at 1,700. Five Division II conferences averaged at least 1,000 fans per home game for the season.

The Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association topped Division III conferences with a 1,059 average per game to take its 18th 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.