The NCAA Tournament Ratings Are In, and They are Good

**xubrew** · 04-09-2025, 09:55 AM

The traditional college sports fan, and I certainly include myself in that, does not like a lot of the changes that we've seen to the sports recently, particularly how high the transfer rates now are, especially in basketball.

Having said that, the more main-stream fan, or fair weather fan, or I guess all of the normal people that are just regular fans, don't seem to mind (or even notice) any of the changes at all. The ratings for the NCAA Tournament were the highest they've been in 32 years for the 1st and 2nd round, the ratings for the Final Four were the highest since 2017, and the ratings for Monday's championship game were the highest since 2019.

The diehard college sports fans like myself and like many who read and post on this site often say college basketball doesn't mean as much to them as it used to, and I totally understand and agree with why that is. But, this is also a reminder that the diehard fans (like myself) are in the HUGE minority. Most normal people like college basketball and the NCAA Tournament just as much as they ever have, and they seem to have barely noticed that anything has even changed.

ArizonaXUGrad · 04-09-2025, 10:14 AM

If you really wanted to gauge whether fan interest was waning, you need to account for attendance throughout college ball and ratings for the same. This new model won't see a change for the top money teams, it's the smaller lower money teams that may see a negative impact.

The ladies final had a 64% drop in viewership, but that was a blowout so it's hard to tell.

nickgyp · 04-09-2025, 10:19 AM

Originally Posted by xubrew

The traditional college sports fan, and I certainly include myself in that, does not like a lot of the changes that we've seen to the sports recently, particularly how high the transfer rates now are, especially in basketball.

Having said that, the more main-stream fan, or fair weather fan, or I guess all of the normal people that are just regular fans, don't seem to mind (or even notice) any of the changes at all. The ratings for the NCAA Tournament were the highest they've been in 32 years for the 1st and 2nd round, the ratings for the Final Four were the highest since 2017, and the ratings for Monday's championship game were the highest since 2019.

The diehard college sports fans like myself and like many who read and post on this site often say college basketball doesn't mean as much to them as it used to, and I totally understand and agree with why that is. But, this is also a reminder that the diehard fans (like myself) are in the HUGE minority. Most normal people like college basketball and the NCAA Tournament just as much as they ever have, and they seem to have barely noticed that anything has even changed.

I thought that I wouldn’t watch the championship game seeing how much I didn’t want to see Sampson win as he caused Indiana’s suspension years ago. The Florida coach, being a Bruce Pearl protege, I don’t find particularly inspiring. But, I did watch the second half; and it was very entertaining. That ‘s about it. Entertaining. But it is easy to move on and ask, “what’s next?”. I look to see how Xavier is doing in the portal. I hope the Xavier mercenaries do well against the other school’s mercenaries next year. I am sure there will be some exciting and entertaining games to watch. The entertainment value reminds but that is about it.

Xville · 04-09-2025, 10:26 AM

Originally Posted by ArizonaXUGrad

If you really wanted to gauge whether fan interest was waning, you need to account for attendance throughout college ball and ratings for the same. This new model won't see a change for the top money teams, it's the smaller lower money teams that may see a negative impact.

The ladies final had a 64% drop in viewership, but that was a blowout so it's hard to tell.

It still did pretty well vs any year outside of last year. Last year was just the Caitlin Clark affect.

**xubrew** · 04-09-2025, 10:40 AM

Originally Posted by ArizonaXUGrad

If you really wanted to gauge whether fan interest was waning, you need to account for attendance throughout college ball and ratings for the same. This new model won't see a change for the top money teams, it's the smaller lower money teams that may see a negative impact.

The ladies final had a 64% drop in viewership, but that was a blowout so it's hard to tell.

You're not wrong, but the way attendance is reported is so laughably unrealiable that you can't really look at official attendance numbers and determine anything.

**D-West & PO-Z** · 04-09-2025, 11:08 AM

Originally Posted by ArizonaXUGrad

If you really wanted to gauge whether fan interest was waning, you need to account for attendance throughout college ball and ratings for the same. This new model won't see a change for the top money teams, it's the smaller lower money teams that may see a negative impact.

The ladies final had a 64% drop in viewership, but that was a blowout so it's hard to tell.

Dude that was all due to Caitlin Clark. That drop is not surprising at all.

**D-West & PO-Z** · 04-09-2025, 11:11 AM

Originally Posted by xubrew

The traditional college sports fan, and I certainly include myself in that, does not like a lot of the changes that we've seen to the sports recently, particularly how high the transfer rates now are, especially in basketball.

Having said that, the more main-stream fan, or fair weather fan, or I guess all of the normal people that are just regular fans, don't seem to mind (or even notice) any of the changes at all. The ratings for the NCAA Tournament were the highest they've been in 32 years for the 1st and 2nd round, the ratings for the Final Four were the highest since 2017, and the ratings for Monday's championship game were the highest since 2019.

The diehard college sports fans like myself and like many who read and post on this site often say college basketball doesn't mean as much to them as it used to, and I totally understand and agree with why that is. But, this is also a reminder that the diehard fans (like myself) are in the HUGE minority. Most normal people like college basketball and the NCAA Tournament just as much as they ever have, and they seem to have barely noticed that anything has even changed.

Generally for most casual fans they want to see high level play and good matchups. We got that this tourney. The play was phenomenal.

NIL is keeping really good college players in college longer. Even for a school like X where most of the players end up overseas. Remember how worried we were that Trevon would leave after jr despite not being an NBA player. And Kaiser Gates who did. Guys leaving early to get their earnings started ASAP (even when that meant overseas) was a frequent topic of discussion. That’s gone now.