(02-14-2024 08:17 AM)schmolik Wrote:  Gonzaga-Kentucky is the latest to reach over 2M.

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2024/02...a-liv-nhl/

Meanwhile Duke played Boston College but couldn't even crack 1 million viewers at 2pm on ESPN.

I've said FOX Primetime Hoops is a gimmick. Indiana-Purdue was outdrawn by another Big Ten game airing earlier in the day on CBS (Illinois-Michigan State). 1.195M in prime time? Couldn't FOX just air reruns of Cops and get 1.195M?

Fox is effectively a sports network now. Ever since they sold off their studio and entertainment assets to Disney, they barely have any incentive to find any new scripted programming anymore. Hence, they’re flush with sports, reality TV and game shows. I think Fox does want to build a prime time college basketball package and it’s honestly something that we should cheer for in the Big Ten (along with the Big East) to counterbalance the loss of ESPN exposure and the move of a lot of what used to be high profile Super Tuesday games to Peacock. We want as many weekend over-the-air games as possible.

The move of Big Ten football off of ESPN is waaaaay overrated (as the NFL-style Fox/CBS/NBC cycle more than compensates), but the move of Big Ten basketball off of ESPN is very underrated (as midweek games being only on BTN, FS1 and Peacock is a big-time downgrade that can’t be fully compensated by more OTA weekend games on CBS and Fox). Basketball season is really where you feel the lack of ESPN time slots because the Big Ten really did take a ton of them in the past.

(02-14-2024 08:17 AM)schmolik Wrote:  Gonzaga-Kentucky is the latest to reach over 2M.

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2024/02...a-liv-nhl/

Meanwhile Duke played Boston College but couldn't even crack 1 million viewers at 2pm on ESPN.

I've said FOX Primetime Hoops is a gimmick. Indiana-Purdue was outdrawn by another Big Ten game airing earlier in the day on CBS (Illinois-Michigan State). 1.195M in prime time? Couldn't FOX just air reruns of Cops and get 1.195M?

The quality of the game had something to do with it. Indiana-Purdue was a blowout. Illinois-Michigan St was close. That matters.

(02-14-2024 08:43 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(02-14-2024 08:17 AM)schmolik Wrote:  Gonzaga-Kentucky is the latest to reach over 2M.

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2024/02...a-liv-nhl/

Meanwhile Duke played Boston College but couldn't even crack 1 million viewers at 2pm on ESPN.

I've said FOX Primetime Hoops is a gimmick. Indiana-Purdue was outdrawn by another Big Ten game airing earlier in the day on CBS (Illinois-Michigan State). 1.195M in prime time? Couldn't FOX just air reruns of Cops and get 1.195M?

Fox is effectively a sports network now. Ever since they sold off their studio and entertainment assets to Disney, they barely have any incentive to find any new scripted programming anymore. Hence, they’re flush with sports, reality TV and game shows. I think Fox does want to build a prime time college basketball package and it’s honestly something that we should cheer for in the Big Ten (along with the Big East) to counterbalance the loss of ESPN exposure and the move of a lot of what used to be high profile Super Tuesday games to Peacock. We want as many weekend over-the-air games as possible.

The move of Big Ten football off of ESPN is waaaaay overrated (as the NFL-style Fox/CBS/NBC cycle more than compensates), but the move of Big Ten basketball off of ESPN is very underrated (as midweek games being only on BTN, FS1 and Peacock is a big-time downgrade that can’t be fully compensated by more OTA weekend games on CBS and Fox). Basketball season is really where you feel the lack of ESPN time slots because the Big Ten really did take a ton of them in the past.

I wonder if when CBS loses the SEC for basketball the Big Ten may get more weekend basketball games on CBS. They have to fill those slots somehow. I believe the Pac 12 CBS games were just sublicensed but there won't be Pac 12 games either so that's more holes for CBS as well. I am surprised CBS didn't order any women's basketball regular season games this season (at least so far). Even NBC aired a women's basketball game this year. CBS will air the Big Ten women's basketball championship game this year and if Caitlin Clark makes it should be the most watched women's basketball game to date.

A Reddit post of all the games of 1M and above up to 2/4/24.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBasketba...n_through/

(02-17-2024 08:41 AM)schmolik Wrote:  A Reddit post of all the games of 1M and above up to 2/4/24.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBasketba...n_through/

That list would be somewhat concerning if you’re the Big East whose TV deal is about to expire, no? Only one game involving teams from the conference on the list and its UConn-St. John’s which checks in at 36.

Edit: Nevermind missed Marquette and UConn non conference games near the top…carry on

(02-17-2024 10:07 AM)BcatMatt13 Wrote:  

(02-17-2024 08:41 AM)schmolik Wrote:  A Reddit post of all the games of 1M and above up to 2/4/24.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBasketba...n_through/

That list would be somewhat concerning if you’re the Big East whose TV deal is about to expire, no? Only one game involving teams from the conference on the list and its UConn-St. John’s which checks in at 36.

Edit: Nevermind missed Marquette and UConn non conference games near the top…carry on

Last year, Creighton/DePaul got 3 million viewers on Fox (thanks to a lead-in from NFL), which was one of largest audiences ever. Now, taking that extremely circumstantial data point aside, the Big East has grown in ratings and viewership steadily on FS1 since making the move in 2013-2014. UConn returning has also immensely helped ratings.

The Big East has done very well on Friday night telecasts, ratings wise (and without significant competition). These are the two highest watched cable games from the league this season:

503K: UConn-Butler (1/5/24)
484K: Butler-Creighton (2/2/24)

I'd expect more Friday night games moving forward, especially with FOX no longer carrying WWE Smackdown.

Another note of interest: there are no non-P6 programs in the top-40 of ratings thus far. No Gonzaga, Dayton, any AAC/A10/MWC team. Something to keep in mind from an expansion perspective.

(02-14-2024 08:43 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(02-14-2024 08:17 AM)schmolik Wrote:  Gonzaga-Kentucky is the latest to reach over 2M.

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2024/02...a-liv-nhl/

Meanwhile Duke played Boston College but couldn't even crack 1 million viewers at 2pm on ESPN.

I've said FOX Primetime Hoops is a gimmick. Indiana-Purdue was outdrawn by another Big Ten game airing earlier in the day on CBS (Illinois-Michigan State). 1.195M in prime time? Couldn't FOX just air reruns of Cops and get 1.195M?

Fox is effectively a sports network now. Ever since they sold off their studio and entertainment assets to Disney, they barely have any incentive to find any new scripted programming anymore. Hence, they’re flush with sports, reality TV and game shows. I think Fox does want to build a prime time college basketball package and it’s honestly something that we should cheer for in the Big Ten (along with the Big East) to counterbalance the loss of ESPN exposure and the move of a lot of what used to be high profile Super Tuesday games to Peacock. We want as many weekend over-the-air games as possible.

The move of Big Ten football off of ESPN is waaaaay overrated (as the NFL-style Fox/CBS/NBC cycle more than compensates), but the move of Big Ten basketball off of ESPN is very underrated (as midweek games being only on BTN, FS1 and Peacock is a big-time downgrade that can’t be fully compensated by more OTA weekend games on CBS and Fox). Basketball season is really where you feel the lack of ESPN time slots because the Big Ten really did take a ton of them in the past.

Yeah, I remember reading Big 10 basketball coaches weren't thrilled about being off ESPN, but that's the price of chasing the highest deal possible.

Sports Media Watch on Caitlin Clark's game last Sunday:
https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2024/03...rship-fox/

It's unreal to me Caitlin's game was watched by more people than any college basketball game, men's or women's, other than the post NFL Thanksgiving game.

Here's another interesting statistic:
https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2024/03...er-lakers/

"Monday’s Duke-NC State men’s college basketball game averaged 1.32 million viewers on ESPN, marking the largest weeknight college basketball audience on any network since a South Carolina-LSU women’s game on ESPN January 25 (1.56M). Among men’s games, it was the most-watched weeknight game since the Purdue-Marquette Maui Invitational final (1.59M)."

The Maui final was the night before Thanksgiving. So since Thanksgiving, the most watched weeknight game was a women's game (and it wasn't a Caitlin Clark game since they're limited to FS1, BTN, or Peacock).

I'm ready to look stupid again. I said last Sunday's Ohio State-Iowa game would have at least 2 million viewers. Well technically I was correct. So tomorrow's Big Ten final on CBS? I'll say at least, are you ready? FOUR million.

This season 7 games have had 2 million or more fans. Last season 12 non NCAAT games had 2 million or more fans although this includes the Big Ten, ACC, and Big 12 finals and both Big 10 semifinals along with the second Duke/North Carolina game which aired the last Saturday of the season and Michigan-Indiana which aired the last Sunday of the season. So we're a little bit above where we were last season.

https://csnbbs.com/thread-963435.html

Two million is a hard threshold to pass.

Again, in two seasons of FOX Primetime Hoops, they've had not one game pass 2 million viewers.

OK, so I totally overshot this time on Caitlin Clark. But 3 million is still pretty good.

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2024/03...-unc-duke/

Ratings for other women's finals also went up:


I don't think CBS intentionally planned it this way but it turned out that having Caitlin Clark first helped out their games the rest of the day. The MVC final got 1.66M and Michigan State-Indiana got 2.06M. I find it hard to believe either of these games would have gotten the ratings they did had the women's final not aired first. We always want the best or most popular game last but we all know the FOX "Big Nooner" strategy as well and CBS has long done the 3:30pm SEC strategy. We've proven that fans will watch a game whenever it's on, you don't have to have it in prime time. Maybe the Big Ten shouldn't have its championship game last on Championship Game Sunday. I've seen years where their champion is underseeded because they can't change the bracket in time. Do you really believe fans won't watch if their championship is 1pm ET instead of 3:30pm ET? 3 million fans watched the women's final at noon ET. If CBS did the Big Ten final at 1pm and the A-10 final at 3pm, more people would watch the A-10.

And we might see a new rivalry in the SEC between Kentucky and Tennessee. This season, both games scored above 2.5 million viewers. The first game aired behind Duke-North Carolina but the second aired on CBS this past Saturday.

ESPN had its best women's basketball viewership since 2008-09.

https://espnpressroom.com/us/press-relea...son-slate/

Because Iowa home games are under Big Ten media contracts, the top five most watched ESPN Network games involve undefeated South Carolina. UConn is also under Big East contracts (one of South Carolina's games was vs. UConn).

ESPN is hoping that Dawn Staley can recruit.

SMW on Championship Week:

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2024/03...t-ratings/

"As for the actual games, the Illinois-Wisconsin Big Ten Tournament final averaged a 1.9 and 3.65 million on CBS — up 11% in ratings and 15% in viewership from last year (1.7, 3.18M) and the most-watched Big Ten title game in three years. The Illini’s win posted the second-largest audience of the college basketball season behind an NFL-inflated Michigan State-Arizona game on FOX Thanksgiving Day (5.2M)."

Last year's Big Ten final was Purdue-Penn State. Indiana has a smaller population than Illinois and Wisconsin and I'm not sure whether Indiana or Purdue is the more popular school, at the very least the fandom is split vs. Illinois and Wisconsin who for the most part own their states. Penn State owns PA ... in football. In men's basketball, a lot of Philly fans probably follow Villanova (when they're good) more and only PSU alumni probably care about PSU basketball. On the other hand Purdue going into the tournament last year was one of the top teams in the country before they choked in the NCAAs so they should have attracted fans.

"The previous day’s Illinois-Nebraska semifinal averaged a 1.7 and 2.98 million on CBS, preceded by Wisconsin’s upset of Purdue at a 1.5 and 2.74 million. In both ratings and viewership, the semifinals increased eight and six percent respectively from last year (Purdue-Ohio State: 1.4, 2.54M; Penn State-Indiana: 1.6, 2.81M)."

This is one thing the Big Ten has that very few conferences have, SF on Saturday drawing big #'s. The SEC is the only other Power conference that plays SF's on Saturday (A-10 and AAC don't count, you can forget the Ivy). The Big Ten SF drew better than any other conference final except the ACC. If I'm a major conference and my priority is TV audience, why not put your semifinals on Saturday as opposed to Friday night when fans are out?

"Later Saturday, the NC State-North Carolina ACC Tournament final averaged a 1.8 and 3.24 million on ESPN — up 23% in ratings and 20% in viewership from Duke-Virginia last year (1.4, 2.70M) and the most-watched edition of the game since the Zion Williamson-era Blue Devils against Florida State in 2019 (4.06M).

The Wolfpack’s upset win was Saturday’s most-watched sportscast, topping a Warriors-Lakers NBA game on ABC — a closely-contested matchup of Stephen Curry and LeBron James — head-to-head (1.6, 2.97M)."

"The Iowa State-Houston Big 12 Tournament final led in with a 1.1 (-16%) and 2.11 million (-15%), the least-watched edition of the game in three years. Not coincidentally, it was also the first Big 12 title game without Kansas in three years. The Cyclones’ blowout win aired in a competitive window that included the most-watched Mountain West and Big East title games in a decade.

The San Diego State-New Mexico Mountain West Tournament final averaged a 1.0 (+3%) and 1.80 million (+9%) on CBS, the highest since 2014 (1.9M), and the UConn-Marquette Big East title game had a 0.9 and 1.68 million on FOX — up 61 and 71 percent respectively from last year (Marquette-Xavier: 0.53, 980K) and the top audience for the game since the “old” Big East on ESPN in 2013 (2.1, 3.42M)."

You think the Big East isn't glad to have UConn back or that UConn won the national championship last year? It is still pathetic to lose to the Mountain West. If any conference could benefit from moving to Sunday, it's by far the Big East. FOX could also air both SF's on Saturday afternoon. FOX also caught a break when Kansas missed the Big 12 final (and SF and QF as well). I mentioned last week that the Big 10 should air the Big 10 men's final first on Sunday followed by the A-10. On Saturday, they air the Big 10 semifinals followed by the Mountain West. Do you think 1.80 million watch the MWC final if it's on before the Big 10 semifinals? They would likely get a viewership more like the A-10 final.

"The Arizona-Washington State Pac-12 Tournament final led out of the Big East with a 0.55 and 1.02 million, down 38% in ratings and 35% in viewership from UCLA-Arizona in a post-ACC timeslot on ESPN last year (0.9, 1.57M)."

First, it wasn't Arizona-WSU, it was Oregon-Colorado. Second, it is pathetic again for FOX to drop 38% vs. ESPN. "Post-ACC" is graveyard shift while this year's game started shortly after 9pm.

"The SEC Tournament also posted double-digit declines. Sunday’s Auburn-Florida title game averaged a 1.0 and 1.78 million on ESPN, down 10% and 9% respectively from last year (1.1, 1.95M) and a three-year low. The previous day’s Florida-Texas A&M semifinal drew a 0.9 and 1.50 million — down 39% and 40% respectively from last year’s 1.4 and 2.51 million — preceded by Auburn-Mississippi State at a 0.7 (-25%) and 1.20 million (-29%).

Rounding out the Championship Week slate, the Duquesne-VCU Atlantic-10 title game drew a 0.7 and 1.16 million on CBS Sunday afternoon — down 16% in ratings and 17% in viewership from last year (VCU-Dayton: 1.0, 1.68M). The Temple-UAB American Athletic championship game had a 0.51 and 878,000 on ESPN later in the day, down 48% in both measures from last year’s matchup of then-#1 Houston and Memphis (1.0, 1.68M)."

The SEC needs Kentucky to win again to get better ratings on Sunday (or even Saturday). More people watched the Big 12 on Saturday night going against both the MWC and Big East than watched the SEC vs. the pathetic A-10. In fact, more people watched the MWC final than the SEC final!!!

As for the AAC, take Houston out and what do you expect?

Granted, I'm sure Caitlin Clark would hold her own vs. a lot of the men's games this weekend but I do like the fact that most of the women's tournament finals are a week early and got their spotlight last week. I don't know what would have happened if all of the men's and women's finals aired the same week. The Women's and Men's Final Fours can be held on separate days but all the finals and semifinals going head to head IMO would be too much.

(03-20-2024 06:29 AM)schmolik Wrote:  SMW on Championship Week:

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2024/03...t-ratings/

"As for the actual games, the Illinois-Wisconsin Big Ten Tournament final averaged a 1.9 and 3.65 million on CBS — up 11% in ratings and 15% in viewership from last year (1.7, 3.18M) and the most-watched Big Ten title game in three years. The Illini’s win posted the second-largest audience of the college basketball season behind an NFL-inflated Michigan State-Arizona game on FOX Thanksgiving Day (5.2M)."

Last year's Big Ten final was Purdue-Penn State. Indiana has a smaller population than Illinois and Wisconsin and I'm not sure whether Indiana or Purdue is the more popular school, at the very least the fandom is split vs. Illinois and Wisconsin who for the most part own their states. Penn State owns PA ... in football. In men's basketball, a lot of Philly fans probably follow Villanova (when they're good) more and only PSU alumni probably care about PSU basketball. On the other hand Purdue going into the tournament last year was one of the top teams in the country before they choked in the NCAAs so they should have attracted fans.

"The previous day’s Illinois-Nebraska semifinal averaged a 1.7 and 2.98 million on CBS, preceded by Wisconsin’s upset of Purdue at a 1.5 and 2.74 million. In both ratings and viewership, the semifinals increased eight and six percent respectively from last year (Purdue-Ohio State: 1.4, 2.54M; Penn State-Indiana: 1.6, 2.81M)."

This is one thing the Big Ten has that very few conferences have, SF on Saturday drawing big #'s. The SEC is the only other Power conference that plays SF's on Saturday (A-10 and AAC don't count, you can forget the Ivy). The Big Ten SF drew better than any other conference final except the ACC. If I'm a major conference and my priority is TV audience, why not put your semifinals on Saturday as opposed to Friday night when fans are out?

I will hold my nose here and say some positive things about Indiana (both the state and school). I wouldn’t ever look at the population size of the State of Indiana with respect to college basketball viewership. Basketball is religion there in the way that football is religion in Texas. Purdue would have the biggest basketball fan base in virtually any state *other* than Indiana. (I’d compare it to Alabama and Auburn - Auburn would be the biggest fan base in virtually any state other than its home state.) IU basketball has one of the largest fan bases of any college team (and I’m talking about either football or basketball). The Hoosiers just haven’t been successful enough lately for their fans to be nauseatingly omnipresent nationally (and believe me that they’ll be nauseatingly omnipresent whenever they’re halfway decent again).

Fun fact: there are only 2 Big Ten college teams (football, basketball or otherwise) that have over 1 million Twitter/X followers: Michigan football and Indiana basketball. That’s not a typo - Ohio State football has not reached that level. In fact, looking across all of college sports, the only college teams with over 1 million followers are the 2 that I mentioned, Alabama football, Georgia football, UNC basketball, and Duke basketball. Duke basketball is the only team with over 2 million followers and it’s not even close - no one else has over 1.2 million. Regardless of what people think of the follower metric, you really do need an extraordinary following to get to the 1 million mark and Indiana basketball is one of the very few college teams that is there (which says something because they have been by far the least successful team of anyone on that list since Twitter/X was created - everyone else has had a straight up national championship to goose followers during that time).

Purdue is a strong #2 in the State of Indiana all things being equal, with the caveat that they have been significantly better on-the-court in recent years (so the IU/PU fan split might seem closer now than it generally has been historically). In any event, their fans show up and watch basketball in large numbers. The lower Big Ten rating from last year was definitely due to the Penn State presence. Illinois and Wisconsin are both near the top of the Big Ten in terms of basketball fandom (in that tier with Purdue, but maybe a little lower than Indiana and Michigan State).

(03-19-2024 04:09 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

I mentioned before both the MWC and MVC finals got bumps. The MVC final followed the Big Ten women's final that got over 3 million viewers and the MWC final followed both the Big Ten men's semifinals with the second final getting almost 3 million (2.98M). I don't think the MWC and MVC should be considered in the same level as the Big 12, Big East, or SEC viewership wise.

The Big 10 and ACC might not be the best on the court but on the other hand seem to be running circles over the other conferences on the screen. You know you're not in the same level when your conference championship is getting destroyed in the ratings by the Big 10 SEMIFINALS (and one of the semifinals had Nebraska in it!) ESPN obviously had pride but when they cut off the ACC-Big Ten Challenge they likely cut their nose to spite their face. Take away Kentucky and who wants to watch the SEC? The Big Ten continues to draw well even though their top team Indiana didn't even make it to Saturday. In fact the ACC final drew well even though Duke didn't make it.

16 games this year had 2 million or more viewers.

5 of them were Big Ten men's conference games (championship, both SF, and two regular season games). Michigan State was also featured in the Thanksgiving game vs Arizona. Arizona is the only Pac 12 team that made the 2 million club.

3 of them were ACC conference games (ACC championship, both UNC Duke games). UNC-Kentucky also made the 2 million club in 1/2 of the CBS Sports Classic.

2 of them were SEC conference games, both Kentucky vs Tennessee. Kentucky also made the list vs. North Carolina and vs. Gonzaga. 3 of the 4 Kentucky games aired on CBS.

2 of them were women's games, both Big Ten games (Caitlin Clark/Iowa vs. Ohio State in her regular season finale and in the Big Ten Women's championship).

The remaining game was the Big 12 final.

The Big East was completely shut out of the 2 million club this year. You can have the defending champ UConn but if they don't play anyone good no one will watch (or less than 2 million will).

The ACC final this year barely beat both North Carolina-Duke games in viewership. That can be somewhat surprising. It would seem like UNC-Duke in men's basketball would be like Michigan-Ohio State in football and the Big Ten Championship almost never beats UM-OSU in viewership. Depending on year, the SEC Championship gets outdrawn by one or more regular season games although in 2023 the SEC Championship was far and away the most watched SEC game because Georgia and Alabama met.

CBS had nine games of 2 million or more, ESPN had five, FOX two although they had two of the three largest audiences of the season. All of ESPN's games were Saturday prime time games.

1st 2 Round NCAA Men's Tournament Games:
https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2024/03...iewership/

North Carolina-Michigan State (Sat CBS Game 3) was #1 the entire weekend with 10.02M. Second place was Gonzaga-Kansas (Sat CBS Game 2) with 8.28M and then Purdue-Utah State (Sun CBS Game 2) with 8.08M. The highest 1st round game was Oakland-Kentucky with 6.21M. All of these games aired on CBS. NC State-Oakland on TBS/TRU (Sat Game 1) had 4.35M. UConn-Northwestern had the lowest Round 2 viewership with just 1.21M (TruTV on Sunday). Yale-San Diego State had just 1.45M as the 2nd game on TBS Sunday. Late games on Sunday don't seem to work although the late game on Saturday (Oregon-Creighton) had 4.05M.

Does CBS want the exclusive afternoon windows to themselves? Having UNC-MSU at night didn't hurt it so having TBS or TNT air games shouldn't hurt CBS's afternoon games and help TNT and TBS by having fewer games vs. each other.

As for First Four, the two 16 seed games were 1.20M and 1.45M while the two 10 seed games were 1.75M and 1.78M. No doubt TruTV gains viewers if all First Four games are at larges vs. Grambling vs. Montana State. The one bid conferences like having 2 units for winning the game but if you're the P6's, why should you let the SWAC and NEC have 2 shares if you don't have to? If they expand to 72 or 76, are they really going to split the pie into 72 slices instead of 68 if CBS/Turner isn't giving extra $ (the contract isn't up until 2032 I believe)? Easy solution is to remove the units for winning First Four but then give one bid conferences an auto bid to the round of 64.

And of course Caitlin Clark strikes again, no surprise...

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2024/03...-lsu-mtsu/

"Saturday’s Holy Cross-Iowa NCAA women’s basketball tournament first round game averaged a 1.8 rating and 3.23 million viewers on ABC, marking easily the largest audience for a women’s tournament game prior to the Final Four. The previous high was 2.50 million for Iowa-Louisville in last year’s Elite Eight."

More viewers this year for a 1-16 game than for last year's Elite Eight and it wasn't even close! Forget Iowa or women's basketball, you know who should really be happy? Holy Cross!

All of women's basketball is growing, not just Caitlin Clark, just look at the other #'s in the article.

According to the upcoming schedule sadly the potential Iowa-LSU game will be Monday night on ESPN. They could have scheduled it for Sunday afternoon on ABC but didn't.

(03-26-2024 02:15 PM)schmolik Wrote:  And of course Caitlin Clark strikes again, no surprise...

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2024/03...-lsu-mtsu/

"Saturday’s Holy Cross-Iowa NCAA women’s basketball tournament first round game averaged a 1.8 rating and 3.23 million viewers on ABC, marking easily the largest audience for a women’s tournament game prior to the Final Four. The previous high was 2.50 million for Iowa-Louisville in last year’s Elite Eight."

More viewers this year for a 1-16 game than for last year's Elite Eight and it wasn't even close! Forget Iowa or women's basketball, you know who should really be happy? Holy Cross!

All of women's basketball is growing, not just Caitlin Clark, just look at the other #'s in the article.

According to the upcoming schedule sadly the potential Iowa-LSU game will be Monday night on ESPN. They could have scheduled it for Sunday afternoon on ABC but didn't.

It's the way the bracket went. Iowa was going to be #2 or 3 overall seed, and those brackets were on Saturday/Monday.

As is get Iowa on Saturday afternoon before the mens tournament starts. And then on Monday with no competition from the men.

(03-20-2024 09:05 AM)schmolik Wrote:  

(03-19-2024 04:09 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

I mentioned before both the MWC and MVC finals got bumps. The MVC final followed the Big Ten women's final that got over 3 million viewers and the MWC final followed both the Big Ten men's semifinals with the second final getting almost 3 million (2.98M). I don't think the MWC and MVC should be considered in the same level as the Big 12, Big East, or SEC viewership wise.

The Big 10 and ACC might not be the best on the court but on the other hand seem to be running circles over the other conferences on the screen. You know you're not in the same level when your conference championship is getting destroyed in the ratings by the Big 10 SEMIFINALS (and one of the semifinals had Nebraska in it!) ESPN obviously had pride but when they cut off the ACC-Big Ten Challenge they likely cut their nose to spite their face. Take away Kentucky and who wants to watch the SEC? The Big Ten continues to draw well even though their top team Indiana didn't even make it to Saturday. In fact the ACC final drew well even though Duke didn't make it.

16 games this year had 2 million or more viewers.

5 of them were Big Ten men's conference games (championship, both SF, and two regular season games). Michigan State was also featured in the Thanksgiving game vs Arizona. Arizona is the only Pac 12 team that made the 2 million club.

3 of them were ACC conference games (ACC championship, both UNC Duke games). UNC-Kentucky also made the 2 million club in 1/2 of the CBS Sports Classic.

2 of them were SEC conference games, both Kentucky vs Tennessee. Kentucky also made the list vs. North Carolina and vs. Gonzaga. 3 of the 4 Kentucky games aired on CBS.

2 of them were women's games, both Big Ten games (Caitlin Clark/Iowa vs. Ohio State in her regular season finale and in the Big Ten Women's championship).

The remaining game was the Big 12 final.

The Big East was completely shut out of the 2 million club this year. You can have the defending champ UConn but if they don't play anyone good no one will watch (or less than 2 million will).

The ACC final this year barely beat both North Carolina-Duke games in viewership. That can be somewhat surprising. It would seem like UNC-Duke in men's basketball would be like Michigan-Ohio State in football and the Big Ten Championship almost never beats UM-OSU in viewership. Depending on year, the SEC Championship gets outdrawn by one or more regular season games although in 2023 the SEC Championship was far and away the most watched SEC game because Georgia and Alabama met.

CBS had nine games of 2 million or more, ESPN had five, FOX two although they had two of the three largest audiences of the season. All of ESPN's games were Saturday prime time games.

Yes, we profusely apologize for cluttering up the airways and taking viewership away from more deserving conferences. I mean everyone wants to watch the SEC, BIG and Big East, not some plebeian schools from west of the Rockies that aren't now part of the BIG, B12 or ACC. I know the SEC's Sankey would like to eliminate conferences such as the MWC from getting auto bids (likely any other bids) to keep the NCAA tournament "pure." The SEC was absolutely dominant come tournament time.

So the SEC women got shoved down more throats than the SEC men?

Interesting