NCAA Womens Title Game Will Move to 3 p.m. ET Start on ABC (merged thread)

[Dillon77]

According to the Athletic:

"The 2023 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship Game will air on ABC, The Athletic has learned, on Sunday, April 2, at 3 p.m. ET from American Airlines Center in Dallas. The Final Four semifinal matchups will air on ESPN at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. ET on March 31. ESPN says it is committed to placing the title game on ABC in 2023 and 2024.

“We’re committed to 2023 and 2024, which are the only two tournaments we have left under contract with the NCAA,” said ESPN president of programming and original content Burke Magnus, who has been pushing for this change. “Under the presumption, and we certainly hope that’s the case that we do renew and extend a deal that includes the women’s tournament, we would continue to do this as a matter of course.”

"The 2023 women’s basketball tournament will be unique in that the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds which will be played using a two-host format with eight teams competing in Greenville, S.C., and eight teams playing in Seattle. (The championship will follow this two-site regional format through 2027.) That should increase in-arena attendance and also makes it easier for television schedulers. ESPN first aired the tournament on ABC in 2021, with two first-round matchups and four Sweet 16 games available on the broadcast network."

 

[LoboDays]

But, not ready for Prime Time…… I think they are.

NCAA women's title game to air on ABC in 2023

ABC will broadcast the NCAA women's basketball championship game for the first time, at 3 p.m. ET on April 2, 2023.

www.espn.com

 

[Beemer]

Why relegate it to the afternoon??? We're talking the Division 1 NCAA women's basketball championship here. If the NCAA is finally seeing to it that the women's tournament is treated equally to the men's why does the network get to get away not doing that???

What bull excrement.

 

[Bald Husky]

Palm Sunday, rather have it on Tuesday night in Prime Time.

 

[Bald Husky]

I said the same thing on the other thread, rather have it on a weekday in Prime time. Trying to make it seem better because it is on ABC, but it's not. We are not stupid. It's also Palm Sunday.

 

[8893]

Palm Sunday, rather have it on Tuesday night in Prime Time.

Good point. 10:00 a.m. Palm Sunday mass will run right up against that 3:00 p.m. start time.

 

[nickp91]

in the 1980s and 90s the NCAA women's final was on CBS

 

[WFFL]

So were seeing UCONN vs South Carolina at 12 Noon PCT ?

 

[Carnac]

Why relegate it to the afternoon??? We're talking the Division 1 NCAA women's basketball championship here. If the NCAA is finally seeing to it that the women's tournament is treated equally to the men's why does the network get to get away not doing that???

What bull excrement.

ESPN said that it would look at moving the game back to prime time in the future but currently has commitments to entertainment shows the night of the game. While we may not agree with this decision, we must recognize that ABC has other commitments to other
shows/programs that it must honor. I understand this may not work for you.

No man can serve two masters. It would appear that this is the best the programing department at ABC can do under the circumstances, or what they choose to do because moving the other broadcast (program) to another time slot would not be prudent or convenient for their viewing audience, or for the participants if the show is live, and could quite possibly lose "prime time" advertising dollars. They are giving another program priority. We're looking at this from a fan's perspective. They're looking at this purely from a business perspective.

3 pm EST is 12 noon for me here on the west coast. I'm fine with it. My only concern is its convenience for the players who sometimes have their games tip off after 9:00 pm local time which to me is ridiculous. It's extremely hard on them, especially when the game could have been scheduled much earlier in the day. For me, it was hard to play early in the morning i.e., 9:00 am, and late in the evening after you've been up all day.

Not all of the players can take naps during the day. I'm not trying to speak for others, but............I never could. For me, the best time for tip off was 2-6 pm. Also traveling to another time zone(s) can also throw your body clock off. A 9:00 pm game for UConn in Dallas would actually be 10pm for them body clock wise. Everyone does not adjust to jet lag the same. Some folks take longer than others. Some can do it 2-3 days, some may take up to 5 days. When scheduling tournament games, the player's convenience is seldom taken into consideration. The networks ($$$) control the broadcast times, and the bottom line for them is ALWAYS potential revenue $$$.

 

[CocoHusky]

Is this a step in the right direction?

 

[WFFL]

The ratings will be 10 times higher on ABC i think that's the positioning.

 

[CocoHusky]

The ratings will be 10 times higher on ABC i think that's the positioning.

Why?
Why wasn't it moved to ABC all along considering that ABC & ESPN are under the same network umbrella?

 

[Mdoggie]

My wife’s birthday. I won’t be watching it live. Planning to go to Italy.

 

[Blueballer]

Actually that reminds of when CBS used to broadcast the Women's Championship years ago. Pretty sure that was in the afternoon.

 

[Carnac]

So were seeing UCONN vs South Carolina at 12 Noon PCT ?

As Mr. Belvedere (Clifton Webb) would say........"that is correct."

 

[JellyBean]

Actually that reminds of when CBS used to broadcast the Women's Championship years ago. Pretty sure that was in the afternoon.

Yup. CBS use to show the Women's Championship around that noon timeframe. I use to hate that! Because we would come home from church, and it would halftime or just starting the 2nd half.

 

[JellyBean]

So were seeing UCONN vs South Carolina at 12 Noon PCT ?

Heck yeah!!

 

[CocoHusky]

Good point. 10:00 a.m. Palm Sunday mass will run right up against that 3:00 p.m. start time.

What Mass you going to that is lasting 5 hours?

 

[Bone Dog]

The one at Cathedral Catholic High School in San Diego only has to go 2 hours to bump into it

 

[Brad Palmer]

Not that anyone ever thinks about these things (or maybe they do, but don't care)...do you know how many youth/AAU girls basketball tournaments are held every weekend starting in late March? Those typically don't end for many teams until late afternoon and even if they finish a few hours earlier, people are often driving back from out of state. Not a great way to grow the game at all.

 

[8893]

What Mass you going to that is lasting 5 hours?

I was being sarcastic, but Palm Sunday is historically the longest mass of the year, and it's kind of a running joke in our house.

I was raised Catholic and my wife was raised Presbyterian. When we first moved to our former town almost 25 years ago, we surveyed the local churches to see which one we should join. The Catholic church was most familiar to me, and also closest to our house, so we started with that one. Unfortunately it was Palm Sunday and mass was like 90 minutes. As we walked out my wife said that one was off the list because she couldn't sit through mass that long.

We went to the Episcopalian church next and there were like eight other people there, six of whom looked to be in their 80s or older; that was off the list because we were looking for a family-centered place.

Next up was the Congregational church, which is where we ended up joining. It was a very good choice for us, and also loaded with former Catholics.

 

[Monte]

What difference does it make? A TRUE fan would watch it at 3:00 AM on Easter.

 

[TC22]

If we have as good of a game as we hope, then people will watch. It's really as simple as that. If people watch then maybe the time will change next year. There's a reason it was switched to ABC and it was because the numbers were there.

 

[Bigboote]

Is this a step in the right direction?

"We know we're going in the wrong direction, but we're compensating for it by accelerating."
-- Stanislaw Lech