NCAA women’s basketball attendance in 2008-09 topped the 11 million mark for the third straight year and set a single-season record of 11,160,293. The previous best was 11,114,054 in 2008.

Division II was the biggest factor in the record-breaking total, beating its all-time women’s basketball attendance mark by almost 124,000 fans. Division III also topped last year’s record attendance figure with 4,667 more fans for a total of 1,203,162.

In Division I, the numbers fell short of the previous season’s record but were good enough to place second all-time at 8,042,040 spectators.

Division I was down but by only 29 fans a game, while Division II increased by 22 per game (its average of 503 fans per game was an all-time high for that division). Division III held steady compared to the previous season.

The Big 12 topped the Division I conference attendance rankings for the 10th straight season and was the only league to top the 1 million mark with an all-time overall conference record of 1,073,069 fans and an average of 5,312 per game. The rest of the top five leagues were the same as for the past two seasons: Big Ten, Southeastern, Atlantic Coast and Big East.

Seven conferences broke both marks: Horizon, Mid-Eastern, Northeast, Southern and West Coast.

For individual schools, Tennessee led Division I in women’s basketball attendance for the sixth straight season. The Lady Vols attracted 209,991 fans for 15 games in Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville for an average of 13,999 per contest. National champion and undefeated Connecticut was No. 2 at 10,529 fans a game while Iowa State and Oklahoma both finished above 9,000 fans per game. Tennessee has led Division I in attendance every since 1997, except for 2003 when the Connecticut held the top spot.

Tennessee also was seen by the most fans in person, including home, road and neutral site games (331,784 fans). Connecticut, Oklahoma, Iowa State and Purdue rounded out the top five in that category.

Auburn more than doubled its fans from 2008 to 2009 to lead the nation with the biggest increase in attendance from the previous season. The Tigers went from 1,842 per game average in 2008 to 4,119 in 2009 for an increase of 2,277 fans per game.

Five other Division I teams realized an increase in attendance from the previous year of more than 1,000 fans per home game: Auburn, East Tennessee State, Texas A&M, Kansas, Florida State and Toledo.

In Division II, Northern State won its second straight attendance with 37,404 fans over 11 games (a 3,400 per-game average). Although Saint Cloud State had more fans at 40,263, it finished second because it played 13 games to average 3,097. The only other schools to finish above 2,000 fans a game were Washburn, Emporia State and North Dakota (a reclassifying member).

The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association led Division II conferences with 188,326 total fans and 1,290 per game. The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference finished second with a 1,045 per-game average.

In Division III, Hope returned to the top spot with 21,581 fans for an average of 1,269. Hope won the title in 2007 but for the past two seasons the attendance champ was Howard Payne, which fell to 12th this year. Other schools above 1,000 fans per contest were Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Calvin and Bowdoin.

The Wisconsin Intercollegiate returned to the top among Division III conferences to take its fifth attendance title in the last seven years and its first since 2007. The conference averaged 501 fans a game and was followed closely by the American Southwest Conference, the Iowa Intercollegiate and the Michigan Intercollegiate.

For year-by-year women’s basketball attendance, click here.