Lack of big-name teams could take toll on Final Four ratings

Cinderellateams make for great stories and busted brackets. They don’tnecessarily make for great television ratings, though.

After gettinga dream Final Four field last year, CBS and Turner Sports havesomethingvery different this weekend with Florida Atlantic,Miami, San Diego State and Connecticut making it to Houston.

The lack ofrecognizable names could affect the ratings.

Upsets duringthe first two weeks have seemingly already taken a toll. Thetournament is averaging 9.11 million viewers through the regionalfinals, which is down 6% from last year. This after the first roundon March 16-17 averaged 9.2 million, a record for the most-watchedround of 64.

Last year’sFinal Four of Duke, North Carolina, Kansas and Villanova resonatedeven with casual fans because it was loaded with national brands.It also included Mike Krzyzewski’s final tournament as Duke’scoach.

This year’sgroup doesn’t have the same cachet.

“The publicis telling us that they would rather see the bluebloods. Theratings support that,” said former CBS Sports president NealPilson, who now runs his own sports television consulting company.“I think it’s because they’re not familiar with teams like SanDiego State, Miami or FAU. There was relatively little pressattention paid to those teams during the year. Connecticut has ahistory, but they’re the only one of the four that really has hadnational exposure.”

Collegebasketball also isn’t different from other sports when it comes tomarquee teams translating to bigger audiences.

Two of lastyear’s Final Four games rank among the three most-watched collegebasketball games in cable TV history. The semifinal matchup betweenNorth Carolina and Duke averaged 18.5 million on TBS and rankssecond, while Kansas’ comeback victory over North Carolina averaged18.1 million.

According toSports Media Watch, which tracked Final Four ratings to 1975, theBaylor-Houston game from two years ago ranks as the least-watchedsemifinal at 8.36 million (individual semis started being trackedin 2002).

The low for atitle game on CBS is 2004, when 17.09 million watched UConn defeatGeorgia Tech. The overall low was in 2018 on TBS, when 15.99million viewed Villanova’s win over Michigan. CBS and TBS beganalternating Final Fours in 2016.

Another thingthat might factor into ratings this year is that Miami and FloridaAtlantic are from the same television markets (Miami/West PalmBeach).

There aresigns that suggest the viewer drop won’t be as bad. Last Sunday’sregional final between Miami and Texas on CBS averaged 11.3million, which was the most-watched basketball game since lastyear’s deciding game of the NBA Finals.

Also, the2011 semifinal between Butler and Virginia Commonwealth — the lasttime two mid-majors met in a Final Four — was down only 2% from the2010 early semi, when Butler beat Michigan State.

“UConn is avery well-known program but with the other three, that’s where theinteresting storylines are,” said Tag Garson, senior vice presidentof properties for Wasserman Media Group. “There are pundits whosaid they were seeded on a line that wasn’t reflective enough ofthe type season they had. There are some tremendous players thatwill be playing this weekend regardless of which team you aretalking about.”