Certainly after the women's final the whole Angel Reese story took over but we all know the women's final shattered records in terms of viewership.

One thing that I don't think anyone can dispute helping add to the ratings is the women's final moving to ABC. You can say finals beat semifinals but on paper the matchup of the same Caitlyn Clark vs. an undefeated South Carolina and the defending national champions with one of the most popular players in the game in Aliyah Boston and one of the most popular coaches in Dawn Staley vs. this LSU team that I barely knew anything about before the game would be closer in the ratings. Imagine if Duke and Kentucky played in the semifinal and the winner played Baylor in the final in men's basketball. We saw that in last year's men's Final Four when the SF was Duke/North Carolina (Coach K's final game) and it outdrew the men's final (no slouch with UNC/Kansas). Different factors were at play, the network was the same, Monday night vs. Saturday night. I don't doubt this year's women's final would have set records had it been on ESPN but I doubt it would have been as high as it was or that much higher than Iowa/South Carolina.

Hopefully that other sport is taking notice. Men's basketball unfortunately is locked up with Turner until 2032 and every even numbered championship will be stuck on TBS until then and Turner doesn't have an OTA network to stick it on like ESPN does. ESPN can certainly stick the CFP/NY6 on ABC if it wanted to and get no objection from anyone in college football, if they want more ratings they'd be stupid not to. Trying to get more cable subscribers right now is a losing proposition, just put it on ABC!

(04-06-2023 02:39 PM)Wahoowa84 Wrote:  

(04-06-2023 02:32 PM)Bronco14 Wrote:  It’s more the options of watching sports that’s changed, rather than people not watching sports at all.
The generation that grew up watching whatever game was on ABC or CBS is dying.
But why s/ I watch a game about teams I don’t care about when I can turn on ESPN+ & find a game w/ a team I’m more interested in?
There'll always be a generation coming in that doesn't care about Hollywood, played sports in high school & likes watching too, etc.

I don’t remember ever watching women’s games previously, but Iowa State/Caitlin Clark versus South Carolina caught my attention. Then watching the finals game made sense. There are more options nowadays.

Me too, very interesting game.

These games were better watched in person anyways (glad I can say that).

(04-04-2023 06:19 PM)dbackjon Wrote:  Number three on the list is last year's Title Game between blue-bloods Kansas and North Carolina. Based on the rhetoric here, that should have been an all-time high.



(And yes, it was on Turner)

Kansas is on the bottom 10 list 3 times, maybe they are the problem.

(04-14-2023 03:26 AM)_C2_ Wrote:  These games were better watched in person anyways (glad I can say that).

You can. Unless they build a new stadium in the Northeast I doubt we'll see a Men's Final Four any time soon. Texas meanwhile has three different stadiums that qualify and both San Antonio and Arlington are scheduled to host future Final Fours in addition to Houston hosting it this year.

The women's Final Four is currently scheduled for arenas until 2031 but unfortunately the closest they are to the Northeast until 2031 is Cleveland next year and Columbus in 2027. You would think with UConn that New York or Philly or Boston should get a chance. With the NIT leaving Madison Square Garden they should bid on the NCAA Women's Final Four. Boston last hosted in 2006, Philadelphia in 2000, New York/New Jersey never, Washington DC never. Ironically in 2006 Duke beat UConn in the regional final in Bridgeport and lost in the championship game to Maryland. I can only imagine the crowd in Boston for UConn.

Women’s sports are a lot of fun. People may not be aware that women’s gymnastics is actually a revenue sport at a few schools and draws pretty large crowds.

ATTENDANCE LEADERS
RANK TEAM TOTAL
1. Utah 15,273
2. LSU 11,417
3. Alabama 10,382
4. Georgia 9,514
5. Florida 8,622


Anyway, tomorrow is the championship featuring the final 4 qualifiers:

Oklahoma (198.1625)
Utah (198.2250)
Florida (197.4000)
LSU (197.4750)