From the NCAA News comes this story: “After three consecutive record-breaking seasons, college football attendance declined slightly for the first time in five years. A total of 48,284,673 fans attended games at all 630 NCAA schools during the 2009 season (including home games, neutral-site games and postseason contests), a drop of 554,330 from the record set in 2008.”
More information from the NCAA report: “Michigan’s 108,933 fans per game over eight home contests edged Penn State’s 107,008 to give the Wolverines their 12th straight attendance title. Two other programs also topped the 100,000 mark: Ohio State at 105,261 and Texas at 101,175. This was the third straight year that Big Ten Conference teams held the top three spots.
“Despite that, though, the Southeastern Conference was the best Division I conference draw for the 12th straight year. SEC schools claimed five of the remaining top 10 spots. The other two top-10 marks went to the Big 12 Conference with Texas at No. 4 and Nebraska at No. 10.
“The SEC totaled 6,560,738 fans while averaging 76,288 per game, shy of the SEC’s all-time conference record of 76,844 in 2008.” (Many more stats and figures available at the NCAA website.)
