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NCAA D-I Basketball Attendance Down Slightly; Kentucky Tops For Sixth Straight Year

Division I men's basketball teams averaged 5,025 fans per game at home this past season, down slightly compared to last year's average of 5,038, according to data from the NCAA. It marks the fourth consecutive year that attendance has seen a decline for D-I teams. Attendance for neutral site games, conference tournament games and NCAA tournament contests are excluded from the figures. The Big Ten led all conferences in attendance for the 35th straight year with 12,826 fans per game, up slightly from last season. The Mountain West set a conference record with 9,122 fans per game, which ranked sixth overall. Other conferences setting attendance records were the WCC, MEAC and Northeast Conference.

NCAA D-I BASKETBALL ATTENDANCE TREND
SEASON
TEAMS
GMS
TOTAL
AVG.
'11
335
5,004
25,147,122
5,025
'10
334
4,995
25,164,431
5,038
'09
330
4,895
25,378,235
5,185
'08
328
4,844
25,793,112
5,325
'07
325
4,735
25,224,121
5,327
'06
326
4,515
23,466,802
5,198
'05
326
4,531
23,084,594
5,095
'04
326
4,473
23,052,946
5,154
'03
325
4,437
22,737,432
5,125
'02
321
4,357
22,016,723
5,053
         
TOP 10 D-I CONFERENCES FOR MEN'S BASKETBALL ATTENDANCE
RANK
CONFERENCE
TEAMS
GMS
TOTAL
AVG.
1
Big Ten
11
193
2,475,440
12,826
2
Big East
16
280
3,170,540
11,323
3
SEC
12
216
2,416,498
11,187
4
Big 12
12
221
2,368,326
10,716
5
ACC
12
206
2,114,779
10,266
6
Mountain West
9
145
1,322,705
9,122
7
Pac-10
10
179
1,397,629
7,808
8
Missouri Valley
10
174
1,250,537
7,187
9
C-USA
12
212
1,204,027
5,679
10
Atlantic 10
14
224
1,175,713
5,249

MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME: The Univ. of Kentucky men's basketball program finished with 23,603 fans per game at Rupp Arena this past season, marking the sixth straight year the school has led D-I. Kentucky has now been No. 1 in attendance for 15 of the last 16 seasons. BYU finished sixth this season with 18,714 fans per game. That figure is up from 14,029 fans per game last season, marking the biggest per-game increase among D-I teams. San Diego State, which ranked 30th in attendance, saw the second-best increase, while Louisville saw the third-best increase during its first season at KFC Yum! Center.

TOP 15 SCHOOLS FOR NCAA MEN'S D-I HOME BASKETBALL ATTENDANCE
RANK
SCHOOL
GMS
TOTAL
AVG.
1
Kentucky
15
354,046
23,603
2
Syracuse
19
423,924
22,312
3
Louisville
21
458,463
21,832
4
North Carolina
15
287,155
19,144
5
Tennessee
18
341,130
18,952
6
BYU
14
261,989
18,714
7
Wisconsin
16
275,680
17,230
8
Memphis
19
318,601
16,768
9
Kansas
18
295,856
16,436
10
Illinois
16
253,623
15,851
11
Marquette
18
280,545
15,586
12
Indiana
18
274,663
15,259
13
Ohio State
20
302,498
15,125
14
Maryland
18
268,380
14,910
15
Michigan State
15
221,955
14,797

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