Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="BigTenGuy, post: 5245127, member: 12979"] The growth story versus 2023 is somewhat overstated by more games being on more accessible networks in 2025 (a good thing). The Sweet 16 round in 2023 was 1 ABC game, 6 ESPN games and 1 ESPN2 game. This year the Sweet 16 round was 2 ABC games and 6 ESPN games. The claimed Sweet 16 increase of 39% over 2023 doesn’t adjust for this or methodology changes that increase viewership compared to 2023. Similarly the Elite 8 round in 2023 was 4 ESPN games versus 2 ABC and 2 ESPN this year. Not sure the ABC Elite 8 games this year drawing 3.4M and 3.1M represent an actual increase in popularity over Louisville-Iowa drawing 2.499M on ESPN in 2023. Getting back to network television has been really good for WBB. The long period of being only on ESPN/ESPN2 was really bad for viewership. The apples-to-apples comparisons to 2024 show a significant drop to Clark and Reese games, but the 2025 numbers are still good. JuJu’s absence also really hurt the ratings for the Monday night Elite 8 games. [/QUOTE]