There were fears that the 2023 men’s NCAA Tournament Finals would have lower interest from basketball fans than in years past, and those concerns were realized with the release of television numbers for the event on Monday night.
March Madness in 2023 on the men’s side of the annual event was filled with tons of surprising upsets. For fans at home and in the various arenas that served as venues for the NCAA Tournament, they were entertained to a level they had never seen before as history was made when this year’s Final Four was the first ever not to have a No. 1 or No. 2 seed.
Also Read: 9 greatest March Madness upsets in NCAA tournament history
However, that also had a major drawback when it came to ticket sales for the Final Four in Houston, Texas. By the team the tournament reached the final four teams, average ticket prices for those last three games plummeted nearly by $100 from where they began earlier in the tourney. That was the first clear sign that the lack of marquee brands and top schools was going to have an effect on the interest in this year’s men’s NCAA Tournament.
Well, the lack of interest wasn’t just in the region but also across the country. On Tuesday the rating numbers for the NCAA Tournament Finals were revealed and they weren’t good. The game on Monday night between UConn and San Diego State scored a shockingly low average of 14.69 million viewers.
The game saw the University of Connecticut score its fifth national championship, however, it was watched by the fewest ever for an NCAA Tournament Final. The number was down 14% from last year’s final and beating the previous low of 16.05 million held by the 2018 championship game between Villanova and Michigan (via Sports Media Watch).
What makes the final number all the more stunning, is that it came at the same time that interest in the women’s NCAA Tournament Final reached an all-time high on Sunday. As the game between LSU and Iowa scored an average of just under 10 million and peaked at over 12 million at one point.