The 2014 NCAA Tournament has been excellent, with many games going to the wire. I don’t know how many games have been decided at the wire or went to overtime. The recent Final Four game between Kentucky and Wisconsin was got the highest rating for a college basketball game ever on cable television. This according to TVbythenumbers.
Turner Sports and CBS Sports’ exclusive presentation of the 2014 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball National Semifinals (Saturday, April 5) across TBS, TNT and truTV delivered the two most-watched college basketball telecasts in cable television history. The networks’ collective coverage of Kentucky against Wisconsin grossed 16.3 million total viewers and an 11.0 HH coverage rating to become the most-viewed college basketball game of all time on a cable television network, based on Nielsen Fast Nationals. The telecast peaked with an average of 18.6 million total viewers and a 12.7 HH coverage rating from 11:00-11:30 PM, ET.
I am really not shocked by this at all the NCAA Tournament is the greatest event in all of sports. Not anywhere in the other sports do you get upsets like Mercer over Duke. This still shows that college basketball is doing quite well despite a ton of players leaving early for the NBA. It’s more about the pride for the school than the players playing.