Even in hard economic times, it looks like people still need to get their fill of college football. For the third straight season, football attendance set a new standard as the 628 NCAA schools combined for a total gate of 48,839,003 during the 2008 season, topping last season’s record by 87,142 fans. See the list here.

Record numbers turned out at stadiums across the country to see Division I Football Bowl Subdivision teams – and those fans helped break the all-time overall Division I record and all-divisions-combined record.

Perhaps a more significant indication of the sport’s popularity than the total numbers is that the average-per-game mark was also broken in the FBS. The average number of fans attending an FBS game in 2008 was 46,971, edging the previous year’s record by 10 fans per game. For all divisions combined, the 2008 per-game average of 13,982 fell short of the record of 14,288 from 2007.

The FBS record in overall attendance, which includes neutral-site and bowl game attendance, was set this season at 37,483,158. The previous high in that subdivision was recorded the year before with 37,146,661.

Add the attendance from this year’s Football Championship Subdivision, and an overall Division I record was set as 43,456,151 people came through the turnstiles in 2008. That broke the mark of 43,042,048 set in 2007.

The 5,972,993 fans that saw FCS games in 2008 was up from the previous season and ranked third all-time in that subdivision, which was known as I-AA since 1978.

Although Divisions II and III did not set records this year, they both posted top-10 totals. The number of fans in Division II – 2,835,247 – was seventh all-time in that division, while Division III enjoyed its fourth-highest total of 2,165,447.

Other division highlights:

• The FBS postseason featured 34 games that totaled 1,773,882 spectators for an average of 52,173 fans per contest.
• In NCAA championship tournaments, the total attendance for the FCS tournament was 179,861 for an 11,991 average over 15 playoff games. The Division II tournament totaled 102,089 fans for a 4,439 average in 23 games. The Division III tournament had 54,606 total fans for a 1,761 average over 31 games.
• The 11 football-playing reclassifying teams, which are NCAA schools in the process of moving from one division to another, totaled 382,158 home fans for a 6,589 average this season.

Individual attendance

Michigan’s 108,571 fans per game over seven home contests edged Penn State’s 108,254 to give the Wolverines their 11th straight attendance title. Two other schools also topped the 100,000 mark: Ohio State at 104,976 and Tennessee at 101,448. The all-time record is 111,175 by Michigan in 1999.

Michigan was the first to average more than 100,000 a game in 1976 and has captured the attendance title 39 times since 1949, including 33 times since 1974.

In total attendance, Michigan led with 759,997 fans in seven home games. Only twice has the 800,000 mark has been eclipsed in a season, and both times it took eight home games to do it. Those marks were 882,115 by Michigan in 2007 and 857,911 by Penn State in 2002.

The Wolverines were followed this season by Penn State’s 757,775, LSU’s 739,065, Ohio State’s 734,830 and Tennessee’s 710,136. All these schools played seven home games in 2008 except for LSU, which played eight.

As for league totals, the Southeastern Conference set the NCAA conference record for average attendance while topping all conferences for the 11th consecutive year. While the Big Ten Conference boasted the nation’s top three teams in per-game attendance, the SEC claimed the six of the remaining top 10 spots. The other top-10 mark went to the Big 12 (Texas at No. 5).

The SEC totaled 6,378,085 fans while averaging a record 76,844 per game. That average mark topped the SEC’s all-time conference record of 75,706 from 2006.

The Big Ten (70,125), Big 12 (62,956), Pacific-10 (57,350) and Atlantic Coast (52,737) rounded out the top five for conference attendance. The Big 12 and Sun Belt set league bests in total attendance. The SEC, Big 12 and Sun Belt were the only three conferences to top their previous high for fans per game.

Other classifications

Appalachian State won the FCS attendance title for the second straight year with an average of 25,161 fans per game. The Mountaineers’ attendance total of 201,291 in eight games was second only to Montana’s 215,308 in nine games. Montana finished second in average with 23,923. Delaware averaged 21,609 to finish third while Jackson State was fourth at 21,263.

In the FCS conference race, the Southwestern Athletic Conference held on to its top spot once again with 14,407 fans per game. The SWAC has finished first in 29 of the last 30 years, with the Southern Conference having won in 2005 and finishing second this season at 12,023. The rest of the top five were the Missouri Valley Football (formerly the Gateway) at 10,955, Big Sky at 10,517 and Mid-Eastern at 9,452.

Three conferences — the Missouri Valley Football, Colonial and Big South — had personal highs for total attendance. No conference topped its best per-game-average.

In Division II, Tuskegee recaptured the attendance title after losing it to Miles last season. Tuskegee averaged 12,080 fans per game and was followed by West Texas A&M (11,896), Grand Valley State (10,520) and Virginia State (9,885).

The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference took its sixth consecutive Division II league crown by averaging 6,809 per game for its 10 members. The Lone Star Conference finished second at 5,572 per outing, edging both the Gulf South (5,186) and the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (5,055).

In Division III, St. John’s (Minnesota) ran away with its eighth straight attendance title by averaging 7,694 per game. The rest of the top five were Wisconsin-Whitewater (5,387), Mississippi College (4,978), Wabash (4,715) and McDaniel (4,544).

The Minnesota Intercollegiate Conference took its fourth straight Division III league attendance title as its nine teams averaged 3,563 fans a game and totaled a Division III-best 160,335 fans. The American Southwest Conference took second at 2,615 fans per game, followed by the Ohio Athletic (2,564), the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (2,516) and the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Conference (2,497).