Perhaps Caitlin Clark was onto something after all.
In the days leading up to March Madness, the Iowa basketball star proclaimed there was more interest in the women’s tournament than the men’s.
Early tourney numbers didn’t seem to bear that out. The championship game, however, tells a different story.
The Associated Press reports that “for the first time” the women’s title game brought in more sets of eyes than the men’s contest.
According to numbers released by Nielsen, 18.87 million viewers watched South Carolina defeat Clark and her Iowa Hawkeyes 87-75.
Just 14.82 million watched UConn – the first back-to-back title holder since 2007 – take down Purdue 75-60.
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NCAA Basketball Ratings For Both Men And Women
The Associated Press cites various reasons that the men’s NCAA basketball championship game failed to outdraw the women in the ratings.
A dominant second half by UConn putting the game away early, combined with an ill-advised late start time of 9:20 on the East Coast could have caused viewers to flee.
The women’s championship, by comparison, was played on a Sunday afternoon.
UConn’s repeat win was still up 4% increase over last year’s final between the Huskies and San Diego State.
“The 67 games of the men’s tournament across CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV averaged 9.9 million viewers, a 3% increase over last year,” the report reads.
USA Today reports that the 18.87 million viewers for the women’s title game represent “an 89% increase from last year, and a 285% — yes, you read that right — increase since 2022.”
Remarkable. Truly.
The investment in women’s sports seems to be paying off. The NCAA basketball ratings show it can be a successful venture for media companies.
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How Does It Rank Against Past Men’s Championship Games?
While not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison, news of the women’s NCAA basketball ratings is certainly welcome for the sport.
Prior to this year’s slight increase though, the men’s championship game had been on the downslide ratings-wise.
Searching through past numbers we find that the Iowa-South Carolina numbers would rank well behind the men’s championship games from 2019 (Virginia def. Texas Tech, 19.63 million), 2017 (UNC def. Gonzaga, 23.00 million), and 2015 (Duke def. Wisconsin, 28.26 million).
The 2015 game was Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s fifth and last national title. It marked the highest-rated college basketball game since 1999 and the most-watched since 1997.
Any guesses as to what the highest-rated NCAA championship game of all time is? I’ll give you two hints:
That’s right. The 1979 NCAA championship game between Michigan State and Indiana State – Magic versus Larry – brought in 35.11 million viewers.
That’s more than the men’s and women’s title games this year – combined.
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