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March Madness concludes this weekend as the men’s and women’s Final Fours play out in San Antonio and Tampa, respectively.
For the men’s tournament, the new landscape of college sports has led to fewer upsets on the court but much more chaos off it.
Top-Dog Status
Duke, Houston, Florida, and Auburn are the first four No. 1 seeds to all reach the semifinals since 2008. It was a mostly chalk bracket, as no team seeded lower than No. 12 won a first-round game, and the Sweet 16 was represented by a record-low four conferences: the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, and ACC.
The lack of Cinderella stories didn’t turn away fans in the opening weekend, though, as TV ratings hit a 32-year high, with an average of 9.4 million viewers tuning in to first- and second-round games on CBS, TNT, TBS, and truTV. However, the record pace slowed down a bit in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, and the tournament overall is now flat in viewership (9.4 million viewers per game through the Elite Eight) compared to the 2024 edition.
Cooper Flagg, Duke’s star forward and the consensus No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA draft, remains the biggest draw left in March Madness.
Musical Chairs
With players and coaches seemingly on the move from school to school now more than ever, a staggering 1,300 college athletes declared their intent to change schools last week after the transfer portal opened the morning after the second round of the tournament concluded.
For coaches, rumors swirled about who would leave their current school for a better job.
Will Wade made the unprecedented move of speaking publicly about his interest in taking the NC State job (which he ultimately did) while he was still coaching McNeese State. In the Big East, Xavier hired Richard Pitino, who will now coach against his father, Rick Pitino (St. John’s), in the same conference.
Show Me the Money
The SEC, with both its regular-season champion Auburn and conference tournament winner Florida in the Final Four, topped all other leagues by earning a record $70 million from NCAA tournament “units.” Here were the biggest earners:
- SEC: $70 million
- Big Ten: $42 million
- Big 12: $40 million
- ACC: $18 million
- Big East: $18 million
- Mountain West: $12 million
The West Coast Conference earned $8 million, and the Missouri Valley, Southland, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, and Southwestern Athletic Conference each earned $4 million. The other 20 conferences each earned just $2 million, as their sole tournament team did not win a game.
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