March Madness 2024

[xubrew]

Men’s draws a 14.8. Women beat men by 4 mil.

Pretty sure the men could have gotten a 14.8 starting an hour earlier.

That's a pretty low rating for the men's championship game, and it's the second year in a row it's been that low. I don't know what it was with the number of open streams, but in the past it's generally been half of what the TV audience was, so that still only gets it up to 21-22 million.

I don't think it has to do with what time the game tips. Hell, every night throughout the season there's a game that tips at 11pm, so for all the games to be over by midnight is actually kind of nice. I think that, put very simply, it's popularity is declining.

[Xville]

That's a pretty low rating for the men's championship game, and it's the second year in a row it's been that low. I don't know what it was with the number of open streams, but in the past it's generally been half of what the TV audience was, so that still only gets it up to 21-22 million.

I don't think it has to do with what time the game tips. Hell, every night throughout the season there's a game that tips at 11pm, so for all the games to be over by midnight is actually kind of nice. I think that, put very simply, it's popularity is declining.

Maybe it's just me but overall I thought the tournament was incredibly boring compared to previous years. Now, part of that was Xavier not being in it, but a bigger part to me was that it was incredibly chalky after the first round. There was the NC State story which was kind of cool I guess, but there didn't seem to be a whole lot of stories/drama with this tourney. It also seemed inevitable that UConn was going to win the thing, from even before the bracket came out.

[GoMuskies]

It's a personality driven thing, and there weren't really any interesting personalities on the men's side. At least not that anyone was aware of. The free agency era brought on by the transfer portal is going to make it more difficult to create interst, too, because people will have to re-learn entire new rosters every season, and the casual fan isn't going to put in that kind of effort.

[Xville]

It's a personality driven thing, and there weren't really any interesting personalities on the men's side. At least not that anyone was aware of. The free agency era brought on by the transfer portal is going to make it more difficult to create interst, too, because people will have to re-learn entire new rosters every season, and the casual fan isn't going to put in that kind of effort.

Fair...who knows how far they would have gotten, but leaving out Indiana State was a missed opportunity from a personality/story standpoint.

There was the Oakland story and that was about it.

[xubrew]

I can't find the number, but I'm almost certain the Xavier v Duke Elite Eight game in 2004 had substantially more viewers than the championship game for the last two years. For some reason I thought it was in the neighborhood of 20 million. Granted there were no live streams back then and it was on a free-to-air network, but still. And that wasn't even a Final Four game.

I don't think the sport or the tournament is as popular as it used to be.

[drudy23]

Seton Hall and Indiana States omissions weren't their bubbles bursting, they were mistakes. Both should have 100% been in the field.

There's decisions between bubble teams that can go either way, this wasn't that. These were flat out wrong decisions. You don't see that very often.

There also were not the typical amount of close games this year. It was relatively pedestrian. Still a great event but rather uneventful this year. Another sign the committee didn't get things quite right with selections and seeding. A ton of boring blow-outs.

[Xville]

Seton Hall and Indiana States omissions weren't their bubbles bursting, they were mistakes. Both should have 100% been in the field.

There's decisions between bubble teams that can go either way, this wasn't that. These were flat out wrong decisions. You don't see that very often.

There also were not the typical amount of close games this year. It was relatively pedestrian. Still a great event but rather uneventful this year. Another sign the committee didn't get things quite right with selections and seeding. A ton of boring blow-outs.

Agreed. I'll also add that the seeding done by the committee was one of the worst I can ever remember. I remember looking at the bracket on Sunday night/Monday morning with a lot of wtf in my mind.

[xubrew]

Seton Hall and Indiana States omissions weren't their bubbles bursting, they were mistakes. Both should have 100% been in the field.

There's decisions between bubble teams that can go either way, this wasn't that. These were flat out wrong decisions. You don't see that very often.

There also were not the typical amount of close games this year. It was relatively pedestrian. Still a great event but rather uneventful this year. Another sign the committee didn't get things quite right with selections and seeding. A ton of boring blow-outs.

I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm saying that it was not a surprise that they weren't selected. If a team is inside the bubble, then the committee will automatically take them. If a team is on the bubble, there is a box that if teams check they will go to the front of the line. They always have.

An out of conference win away from home against another tournament team.

Virginia did that. The Big East teams did not.

Because Virginia beat Florida on the 4th day of the season down in Charlotte, I was almost certain they would get in over any of the Big East bubble teams or Pitt. Even though it was on the 4th day of the season, and even though Charlotte isn't exactly on the other side of the world from UVA, and even though Florida would have clobbered them had they played later on in the year, the committee is almost programmed to look at a game like that and put any bubble team that has that OOC win away from home against a tournament team ahead of anyone else that doesn't.

Was it a mistake?? Perhaps. Was it consistent with what they've always done?? Yes.

[Xville]

I can't find the number, but I'm almost certain the Xavier v Duke Elite Eight game in 2004 had substantially more viewers than the championship game for the last two years. For some reason I thought it was in the neighborhood of 20 million. Granted there were no live streams back then and it was on a free-to-air network, but still. And that wasn't even a Final Four game.

I don't think the sport or the tournament is as popular as it used to be.

Can't find X-Duke either but I'd be shocked if it was anywhere close to 20 based on the numbers of Final Four/Championship listed here. I assume these numbers are accurate...i know this year's are. Regardless, as you stated, the last two years numbers are concerning for the sport. Football only seems to get more and more popular, while college basketball only gets less and less. With both having transfer portal/nil, not sure if that's why basketball seems to be losing its popularity or what it exactly is.

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/nca...s-cbs-tbs-nbc/

[waggy]

How often has the game been on TBS?