The madness resumes on Saturday now that the NCAA Final Four is set in both brackets. So far, we have seen that the Men’s Tournament grew in the first two rounds (the highest in 32 years!), but experienced declines for the Sweet 16 and Elite 8. For the Women’s Tournament, it was always projected that viewership would decrease from last year, due to Caitlin Clark going pro after the 2024 season. However, this tournament is on track to be the 2nd most-watched Women’s tournament, showing that interest in Women’s basketball is growing.
This year, the Men’s bracket was missing a “Cinderella”-type storyline, which is a possible reason why ratings for those rounds faltered. It will be interesting to see if that missing storyline influences the Final 4 and National Championship games since this is the first time since 2008 that the remaining 4 teams are all #1 seeds. Will the lack of a “Cinderella” lead to more declines, or was that narrative a hindrance for the middle of the bracket? Will the competitive aspect of the 4 highest-ranked teams lead to more viewers?
As March Madness concludes, it will be interesting to see how the remaining games impact the overall narrative of each bracket. If the Men’s side struggles to match ratings from recent years, it will be due to a combination of two things: 1) a lack of upsets throughout the tournament and 2) only 1 traditional powerhouse (Duke) is still in it. The Women’s side isn’t expecting to beat last year’s numbers, but if the trend continues, it shows that even without the star power of 2024, Women’s college basketball is a growing sport.
Posted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership self-publishing platform.
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