Attendance at NCAA football games was down slightly in 2009 compared with the record 2008 season.
The NCAA reported on Monday that almost 48.3 million fans attended games at the 630 NCAA schools, including home, neutral-site and postseason games.
That’s down about 1 percent from the 48.8 million in 2008. The decline was college football’s first in five years.
NCAA associate director of statistics Gary K. Johnson said crowds were bound to level off after years of increases. He said the economic downturn could have been a factor.
The average attendance at Football Bowl Subdivision games last season was 46,281, the NCAA reported.
The Southeastern Conference drew the most fans of any conference for the 12th consecutive year, with average home attendance of 76,288. That was down 556 per game from the SEC record set in 2008.
Michigan led the nation with an average crowd of 108,933. Penn State, Ohio State and Texas also averaged better than 100,000 a game.
Division II and Division III saw slight increases in attendance.
The NCAA’s Top 10 in average home attendance for the 2009 season:
1. Michigan – 108,933
2. Penn State – 107,008
3. Ohio State – 105,261
4. Texas – 101,175
5. Tennessee – 99,200
6. Georgia – 92,746
7. LSU – 92,489
8. Alabama – 92,012
9. Florida – 90,635
10. Nebraska – 85,888
