The first Sweet 16 of men’s March Madness without a mid-major—and the smallest number of conferences represented (four)—may not appeal to college basketball fans who prefer Cinderella stories.
But NCAA tournament TV rights holders CBS Sports and TNT Sports are likely just fine with the power shift.
While there won’t be the intrigue of an out-of-nowhere underdog continuing a surprise run (the lowest seed is No. 10 Arkansas, led by six-time Final Four coach John Calipari), the breadth of college basketball bluebloods and major programs from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, and SEC should make for strong TV ratings as the teams with some of the largest national fan bases battle to make the Elite Eight and Final Four.
“As these conferences get bigger, they bring along bigger TV audiences,” longtime sports media consultant Lee Berke told Front Office Sports. “So, the fact that you’re going chalk in a lot of these matchups just means you’re having these ultimate games being scheduled one after the other.”
By the Numbers
Viewership for the opening day of March Madness delivered a record-high average audience of 9.1 million per game window. Numbers for the remainder of the first and second rounds are not yet available.
The 10 most-watched games of the men’s college basketball season (including conference tournaments) featured 12 teams, and 9 of those are in the Sweet 16: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Duke, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, and Tennessee.
Outside of an Illinois-Arkansas clash that drew a season-high 5.17 million viewers on CBS on Thanksgiving Day, Duke–North Carolina (3 million on ESPN) and Alabama-Auburn (2.76 million on ESPN) were the two most-watched regular-season games.
The most notable Cinderella team in recent years is Saint Peter’s, which won three games as a No. 15 seed in 2022. When its run ended against UNC with a 69–49 blowout, the 13.58 million viewers who tuned in on CBS marked the least-watched late Sunday Elite Eight window in six years.
