UConn–San Diego State Final Delivers Historically Low Ratings

[Mr. March]

Everybody expected UConn to win

Interestingly Uconn may have become a victim of its own success. Another game that was top 5 all time for low ratings was the 2004 championship game and as we all remember at about the second round people were calling it the Uconn invitational as everyone expect us to win. Same thing ended up happening this year. People see Uconn and roll their eyes and say theyre going to win it again why should i watch. You couple that with us playing SDSU and the championship game simply wasnt compelling and SDSU plays ugly. If we had played another blue blood the ratings wouldve been better but ratings schmatings! We`ve got #5 and thats all that matters.

 

[Mr. March]

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.

Its still a title.

 

[UConntLose]

Honestly, the amount of air people have given to this story and the blue blood argument is absurd. Who cares how many people watched or if we're a blue blood or not? All I care about is winning championships, whether that's in front of 10 fans or 10 billion fans. As for the blue blood argument, we're in a league/class of our own.

I've given up caring what anyone else thinks of our beloved university. We all have differing opinions on here, but one thing we don't debate is our love of UConn and how we feel about them. People can think the high heavens of Duke, UK or KU, but they don't have what we have: 5 titles (and counting) in 24 years.

Let people continue to underestimate us. It's worked out great for the ACC (Miami, BC, Cuse, Pitt, VaTech, L'ville), the Big 12 (WVU), and the B10 (Rutgers) so far. One of these days the rest of the world will come around to what we've been preaching all along: UConn is the Standard.

 

[Mr. March]

Let me just add that one more caveat to those numbers. UConn is a well known brand but not well liked which comes with the territory of success. What a lot of these reports leave out about the low ratings is that ratings have been dropping for the last 5 tournaments regardless of whos playing. But if you look beneath the surface this is just another dig at UConn which goes alongside the "they had an easy path" narrative. The majority of the country hates seeing us continually winning especially when they thought they had rid themselves of us after the GOAT retired. Think about how you felt about Duke before we won a title. Thats how a lot of the country and national media feel about UConn.

 

[Ports21]

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.

This but with the trophy

 

[housekeys]

I believe that the main reason there was any viewership at all was because of us.

Correct. And for many, their interest in watching was to see UConn get upset.

 

[Husky25]

Honestly, the amount of air people have given to this story and the blue blood argument is absurd. Who cares how many people watched or if we're a blue blood or not? All I care about is winning championships, whether that's in front of 10 fans or 10 billion fans. As for the blue blood argument, we're in a league/class of our own.

I've given up caring what anyone else thinks of our beloved university. We all have differing opinions on here, but one thing we don't debate is our love of UConn and how we feel about them. People can think the high heavens of Duke, UK or KU, but they don't have what we have: 5 titles (and counting) in 24 years.

Let people continue to underestimate us. It's worked out great for the ACC (Miami, BC, Cuse, Pitt, VaTech, L'ville), the Big 12 (WVU), and the B10 (Rutgers) so far. One of these days the rest of the world will come around to what we've been preaching all along: UConn is the Standard.

You are referring to on-field performance. Administrators have their eight figure annuity. On-field performance is an afterthought. The ACC loves having 'Cuse and BC in the conference. it pumps up the records of the "real" programs and taps into media markets for the ACCN.

If on-field performance was any consideration, BC would have been disqualified in 1996.

 

[prankster]

The 9:20 start removes a bunch of casual fans from the east coast. If you're not a passionate fan why even start watching a game you won't be up to finish
Can say the same about a lot of east coast kids as well.
Outside of CT or the fan base, there wasn't really a marquee name to sell the game on. Hawk has been on the rise, but I'm surprised by how many pretty knowledgable fans I know could not name a single player from either team. A few knew "the tall dude who grew up near ESPN headquarters"
The absolute destruction of the vast majority of fans brackets also player a role, I'm willing to bet It was a down year for the old guard blue bloods and most lost early to teams that had people going "Who?" When fans teams are knocked out early, many don't stick around for 2 more weeks when their teams are home already.
Finally, after the UConn drubbing of Gonzaga, at least non UConn fans I know here in VA thought it was just going to be a coronation.
.

I wonder a bit about portal effects. If not 2023 specifically, then going forward, generally.

To your point about player name recognition, I feel the portal may tend to dilute that.

When a player is associated with a program, there is a stronger recognition. When a portal player comes in, he had better have his own, established recognition.

I recently read about a portal guy who is entertaining his fourth team.....

That could be somewhat of a brand weakness, as this experiment moves forward.

 

[conn man]

The sweet 16 and elite eight ratings were down too, so it wasn't just the final

 

[uconnseth]

There’s a level of interest that millions of pools bring as well - and when so few people had their teams left by Monday night it has to affect ratings. My wife was never so interested in Gonzaga until she picked them as her champ in our pool - but once they were gone, so was interest.

I couldn’t care less - pretty sure the viewership among Uconn fans was pretty high

 

[USNavyDog]

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

I hope future games don't get rigged in some manner to "improve ratings". Game need to be fair and honest regardless of how nany upsers occur throughout the tournament.

 

[HooperScooper]

I couldn’t care less - pretty sure the viewership among Uconn fans was pretty high

You think? Lol

 

[rman726]

I hope we set the record again next year.

 

[pj]

Agree with what everyone else said, but San Diego State's physical rockfight style didn't help either. There were a few beautiful passes, like Jackson's drop off for the Calcaterra three, but they were greatly outnumbered by plays where it was hard work to do anything.

 

[John]

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.

I wonder what their Helms trophy ratings numbers looked like.

 

[wingsfan055]

I like to look at it this way. If this was Miami vs SDSU, there would only be 5M viewers.

 

[wingsfan055]

Of course, the haters will use this stat as one of their arguments that we are not a true Blue Blood.

 

[AdamaNation]

Haven’t sports ratings in general fallen?

Is this tv or all viewing/streaming?

 

[wvhuskyfan]

I think The Onion hit the nail on the head with the last sentence of this article (? - do they call them "articles" on The Onion?)

NCAA Awards Title To Duke In Final Upset Of March Madness

HOUSTON—Capping off a wild tournament defined by surprising underdog victories, the NCAA awarded the national championship title Monday to Duke University in the final upset of March Madness. “After 40 minutes of riveting basketball between San Diego State and the University of Connecticut in a...

www.theonion.com

 

[Fan1978]

Haven’t sports ratings in general fallen?

Yes, tournament was down 7 percent

 

[gampelcrazies]

Miss-seeding us and SDSU cost them ratings. Casuals get caught up in the seedings when it comes to Final Four/Championships. On paper a 4 vs. 5 seed doesn't sound great.

 

[uconnfan68]

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

It’s Nielsen ratings. They find the most obscure people to do it. It’s why you see so many reality shows.

 

[uconnfan68]

It is a stretch to take a shot at the Big East using the fact that a mid-major ish program that is located in paradise (and therefore does not generate great fan interest on its best days) and at various points in the 48 hours leading up to the game was the biggest underdog in over 25 years, did not rock the ratings.

San Diegans do not focus much on indoor sports when the weather is 75 and sunny 350 days of the year.

Indeed. They had NBA and NFL teams when I lived there, but neither remains.

 

[That Guy]

Maybe I'm biased, but I 100% think it's because of the late start time + the fact that SDSU was in the title game and everyone expected us to blow them out. If the game started at 8 and it was UConn vs. any of the 1 seeds or blue bloods then it would've had good ratings.

 

[huskymedic]