Women’s college basketball attendance surpasses 11 million for 3rd straight year

The NCAA reported today that women’s basketball attendance surpassed 11 million for the third straight year. Attendance for the previous season was the second-highest total in history. Attendance for all three NCAA divisions was 11,134,738, just shy of the record 11,160,293 set in 2008-09.

Tennessee led the all schools in home attendance at 12,896 fans per game for the seventh straight year. Connecticut was second at 10,182. One of those two schools has led the nation every year since 1995. They were the only two schools to top 200,000 total fans (Tennessee at 219,233 and Connecticut at 203,648). Tennessee has led the nation in attendance for 13 of the last 14 seasons.

A breakdown of the attendance totals:

DIVISION I

	School	G	Attendance	Average
1.	Tennessee	17	219,233	12,896
2.	Connecticut	20	203,648	10,182
3.	Iowa St.	19	177,002	9,316
4.	Notre Dame	17	142,412	8,377
5.	Purdue	18	146,868	8,159
6.	Oklahoma	16	122,902	7,681
7.	Nebraska	16	118,232	7,390
8.	Baylor	17	122,550	7,209
9.	New Mexico	18	127,623	7,090
10.	Texas Tech	19	129,896	6,837

DIVISION II

	School	G	Att.	Avg.
1.	Northern St.	14	40,563	2,897
2.	Fort Hays St.	14	30,995	2,214
3.	Emporia St.	13	27,529	2,118
4.	St. Cloud St.	13	27,044	2,080
5.	Washburn	13	26,401	2,031

DIVISION III

	School	G	Att.	Avg.
1.	Hope	20	22,764	1,138
2.	Howard Payne	11	9,225	839
3.	Wis.-Stout	12	9,318	777
4.	Mississippi Col.	11	8,498	773
5.	George Fox	15	11,504	767

More notes from the report:

• Nebraska led all teams in the largest improvement in attendance from the previous season. The Cornhuskers averaged 7,390 fans per home game, 4,179 more per game than in 2008-09. Their 30-game winning streak at the start of the season was a major factor.
• The Division I championship tournament drew 231,644 spectators for an average of 5,515 fans per session over 42 sessions (first and second rounds, regionals and the Final Four). That is well over the 5,213 average in 42 sessions last year and slightly more than the all-time tournament session average of 5,490. This year was the second since the tournament’s preliminary-round format reverted to 16 predetermined campus sites for the first and second rounds. From 2005 through 2008, those rounds were conducted with eight teams at eight predetermined sites. Per-session averages in those years (including regionals and the Final Four) ranged from a high of 6,955 in 2008 to a low of 5,569 in 2006.
• The Division II tournament set a record for most total fans at 56,430. It broke the record of 54,775 set in 2003. The 2010 total was over 44 sessions and averaged 1,283 fans a game.
• The Division III tournament had 38,423 fans for a 915 average in 42 sessions.
• In Division II, Northern State captured the attendance title for the third straight season, averaging 2,897 fans per game. Next was Fort Hays State at 2,214, followed by Emporia State (2,118), St. Cloud State (2,080) and Washburn (2,031).
• In Division III, Hope ran away with its second straight attendance title by averaging 1,138 per game. The rest of the top five were Howard Payne (839), Wisconsin-Stout (777), Mississippi College (773) and George Fox (767).
• For Division II conferences, the 11 teams of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association recorded a second straight attendance title by averaging 1,314 per game. In Division III, the nine teams of the Iowa Intercollegiate earned the league’s eighth title all-time at 461 fans per game.

The full report can be viewed here.