Big Ten Leads In Attendance Once Again

The Big Ten traditionally has led the nation in attendance every season. And by traditionally I mean they've now led the nation in conference attendance for men's basketball for 38 straight seasons.

This year was even better for the conference though, setting a Big Ten record with an average of 13,534 attendants per game for every regular season home game and Big Ten Tournament matchup. All in all the conference saw almost 2.9 million people come out to the arenas, making it the 22nd season in a row the Big Ten has drawn more than two million people.

There were other improvements for the Big Ten as well, with the Big Ten Tournament seeing it's largest attendance yet (111,427) when located in Indianapolis. The Big Ten also had it's third highest average attendance for regular season and postseason home games (excluding the Big Ten Tournament), increasing for the fifth straight season and only trailing the 1989-90 and 1999-2000 seasons.

Taking this into consideration it shouldn't be a huge surprise that nine of the twelve teams in the conference ranked in the top 25 nationally in average attendance. The following schools made the cut:

1. Indiana 17,359 (6th)
2. Wisconsin 17,104 (7th)
3. Ohio State 16,474 (8th)
4. Nebraska 15,419 (13th)
5. Illinois 15,246 (15th)
6. Iowa 14,976 (17th)
7. Michigan State 14,797 (18th)
8. Purdue 12,738 (23rd)
9. Michigan 12,696 (24th)