UConn–San Diego State Final Delivers Historically Low Ratings

[LoyalFanCT]

Was it just largely because it started late at night, or, was it a lack of national interest in the game.

https://www.si.com/college/2023/04/05/uconn-san-diego-state-national-championship-game-low-tv-ratings

 

[huskymedic]

 

[bendm]

not a surprise but every highschool ball player in the world was still watching, that's all that matters

 

[Austin316]

Haven’t sports ratings in general fallen?

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Not surprising. Some upsets are good for fan interest. Too many upsets are bad.

 

[Kenny11]

I think the game should be on the Sunday night in the same time slot they put the super bowl in and the women should have their championship in primetime on saturday night

 

[Palatine]

But higher than any NBA Finals playoff game from last year.

This year's premiere of American Idol was just over 5 million.

 

[UConnRock]

I think many saw the Miami game as more of a championship matchup thus the decent semi-final rating. SDSU just doesn’t move the rating needle even in California. There was no hype or hook to draw eyes. Just UConn dominating. Women’s game had Clark and got record ratings.

 

[3rdbass]

Was it just largely because it started late at night, or, was it a lack of national interest in the game.

https://www.si.com/college/2023/04/05/uconn-san-diego-state-national-championship-game-low-tv-ratings

Yeah, I saw this on the Syracuse board. It was one of the few things they could make fun in that UCONN thread for the championship game.

 

[nomar]

Everybody expected UConn to win

 

[Chin Diesel]

Basketball viewership in general is down.
NCAA Finals still beats NBA finals.
UConn alone cannot carry a large viewership number.

All these are true.

 

[c29328]

I think east coast timing for start at 9:20 was foolish. An hour earlier and it's better. That said, this game had very regional appeal. No biggie.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

Everybody expected UConn to win

Yeah, combo of a team that no one cares about in SDSU (not even the “Cinderella” compared to FAU) combined with everyone expecting a blowout (and a lot of folks probably turning it off at halftime due to the score).

 

[businesslawyer]

Yeah, I saw this on the Syracuse board. It was one of the few things they could make fun in that UCONN thread for the championship game.

LOL. The key phrase in “the ratings were poor when UConn won its 5th championship in 24 years” is not “the ratings were poor….”

 

[August_West]

I dont care if 5 people watched it.

Each viewer could be holding one of our trophies.

 

[RipCity]

The spread was 7.5 and the start time catered to the team that was a huge underdog with a smaller fan base.

 

[7774]

I think east coast timing for start at 9:20 was foolish. An hour earlier and it's better. That said, this game had very regional appeal. No biggie.

It's literally this exact time every year.

 

[upstater]

4 of the 5 lowest have come in recent years.

But the biggest factor in all this is the halftime score and also the early part of the 2nd half. People tuned out. You could see it in the numbers. The rating early was decent and inline, then there was a massive drop.

By the way, the 2004 Georgia Tech game was super low as well, but that was another massive blowout early.

Otherwise, UConn did decently in the other 3 title games.

The problem seems to be 15 point leads makes people tune out. If it's 10:30, and there's a 12 point lead, you might not wait for halftime. You might just go to bed instead of watching.

 

[Husky25]

I think east coast timing for start at 9:20 was foolish. An hour earlier and it's better. That said, this game had very regional appeal. No biggie.

9:20 might be a little obscene, but tipoff has always been around 9:00 on the East Coast. What has increased over the last 30-40 years are advertisers and commercial dollars, which has pushed tip a little later, but also leads to longer timeouts (approaching 4:00 when they used 2), and longer halftime. I distinctly remember watching UNLV beat the snot out of Duke in my bedroom, and still getting enough sleep to attack 8th grade. This year, I didn't fall asleep until 1:00 Tuesday morning.

 

[auror]

It was a Final with almost 0 national storylines. Dominant favorite. No connection between the 2 schools. No top 10 NBA picks (SDSU literally 0 draft picks). No famous coaches (Hurley should be soon).

The main storyline was UConn rising back (and Dan Hurley's building) but basically by definition that means the fanbase isn't full. The bandwagon wasn't yet complete. We have a national name, but are not a national draw. Not enough people hate watching us. From a national perspective we're the fun/quirky team that wins titles and then you forget about for a few years and that other blue bloods are scared to see the in the tourny.

SDSU in general is a school with a decent fanbase, but my best proxy for young, hardcore fans (KenPom subscriber favorites) puts them at 46th (and us at 9th). Last year's Final 4 had all in the top 20 (and 2 of the top 5).

And then yeah, add in the blowout halftime thing as pointed out by others in this thread.

 

[Yankees32123]

Very late tip time on a Monday, predictable outcome (even though I was sweating bullets), general falloff in TV ratings. And let's face it, UConn is a big national brand, but this wasn't Kentucky vs. North Carolina.

 

[Poe]

Hasn’t the game always been at 9:20 pm? Not sure this is a reason for lower ratings.

 

[Inyatkin]

It's like when they do those list of worst title teams of all time with 2014 at the bottom. I'll definitely be crying about that one.

 

[EBonz30]

Yea it was always a given to have extremely low tv ratings once that group of final four teams were left.

The NCAA tournament the first weekend is all about huge upsets, but the rest of the tournament is about having blue bloods & the big dawgs in it- when that doesn’t happen ratings are going to tank.

Example this year- the first round had the highest tv ratings of all time.

Nothing to get upset or taken back by- UConn was not the reason- was really the three other teams who were all first timers in the final four & all lacked national appeal/pedigree.

 

[Waquoit]

UConn-Duke or UConn-Kentucky would have had better ratings. But those two losers couldn't get past the first weekend.