College Basketball - One Observation

[DownwardDawg]

What's going on with college basketball? Is it not as popular these days? I'm not a huge fan but I always watched the tournament in the past. This year I barely paid attention. (That's probably because we suck so bad in basketball) The Final Four was on TBS for God's sake. This morning I'm sitting in a room with 11 construction workers. All of them from their mid 20's - mid 30's. I asked who won the championship last night. All I got was blank stares. The only comment I got was "nobody watches college basketball."

[HailState39110]

I thought it was a great game last night and the first 2 rounds of the tournament had their highest ratings in many years. March Madness is great. Regular season(especially before January is boring as hell) College bball has a lot to improve but the NCAA tournament is not one of them

[spiritual_machine2005]

Agreed. About 20-15 years ago I watched almost every college basketball game I could on TV. Now I don't really pay much attention at all until league play starts. I still keep up with MSU all season, even though it might be like pulling teeth sometimes.

[smootness]

The Final 4 games were on TBS because they paid a ton of money for them, not because ratings are down or anything.

Is it as popular as it used to be? Maybe not, maybe so, I don't know; it's definitely still popular. Honestly, if you went up to a group of people the day after the World Series ended, a lot probably couldn't tell you who won that, either.

The amount of people who are just sports fans across the board is not really all that great.

[C222]

There were 80k people in the arena last night. Most ever for a Championship game.

[Dawg61]

Just change the foul rules back to how they were and although I know it won't happen I wish college basketball could somehow keep the players more than one year before they go pro.

[fishwater99]

Ask those same guys about UFC or Wrestlemania and I bet you would have gotten a different answer.
Construction worker's are not the basketball type.

[dawgs]

tourney is still hugely popular, which is why turner paid a shit load of money to split the tourney between cbs, tnt, tbs, and trutv. the regular season is down, largely because of the way the game is played/called and the way the "1 and done" rule has adversely affected the game. the general fans don't have a chance to learn players over a few years because it's the freshman that grab the headlines and we all know they'll be gone in a year. literally before the tourney, outside of msu's roster, probably 80+% of the CBB players i could name were freshmen, many of whom are going to be gone next year.

[quickstrike2]

I think the NCAA tournament is so popular, especially in the first and second rounds, is because of the upsets. The casual fan loves seeing the 12's beat the 5's. Then factor in that just about everybody does a bracket these days, so they wanna watch until it busts. I enjoy watching the tournament, but i really didn't watch one regular season basketball game and I use to be a diehard fan of basketball.

[Raytoraid83]

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2014/04/06/2014-ncaa-final-four-national-semifinals-deliver-most-viewed-college-basketball-telecasts-in-cable-television-history/251597/

[Dawg61]

Wow the two semifinal games are the most viewed of all-time. Not too shabby for poor little TBS.

[Bullmutt]

"There were 80k people in the arena last night. Most ever for a Championship game."



I can't believe people would actually pay for those cheap seats. The game would have to look like a bunch of ants running around on top of a matchbox from that distance.

[RougeDawg]

I cannot watch because a foul is no longer a foul. The after time last night, a UCONN player would initiate the contact, with a UK player not even moving and UK player drew the foul. It's ridiculous how they and the NBA officiate the game. Swine can get mauled, over the back on a rebound, but as long as the mauling player has a finger on the ball, it's a jump ball. Don't mind that he tackles the player who had both hands on ball initially. It's just painful to watch all these refs use subjectivity on a objective call. If contact on one play is a foul, that se contact on ANY ****ING PLAY, should be a foul.

[thf24]

I cannot watch because a foul is no longer a foul. The after time last night, a UCONN player would initiate the contact, with a UK player not even moving and UK player drew the foul. It's ridiculous how they and the NBA officiate the game. Swine can get mauled, over the back on a rebound, but as long as the mauling player has a finger on the ball, it's a jump ball. Don't mind that he tackles the player who had both hands on ball initially. It's just painful to watch all these refs use subjectivity on a objective call. If contact on one play is a foul, that se contact on ANY ****ING PLAY, should be a foul.

I agree. College is also following the NBA mold on traveling too. Besides the fact that players seem to be able to take twice as many steps on the way to the basket as they could just five years or so ago, I've been seeing things like Napier last night when he picked up the ball, take three steps towards the basket, then pass (led to a made 3), without ever jumping or initiating a shooting motion. There is no subjectivity or discretion in play there; that's traveling, plain and simple. But no call.

[dawgs]

I think the NCAA tournament is so popular, especially in the first and second rounds, is because of the upsets. The casual fan loves seeing the 12's beat the 5's. Then factor in that just about everybody does a bracket these days, so they wanna watch until it busts. I enjoy watching the tournament, but i really didn't watch one regular season basketball game and I use to be a diehard fan of basketball.

it also has to do with a high stakes sporting event taking place for over 12 hours each day for 4 straight days.

[Dawgface]

I watched maybe 15 minutes total this tournament. And that was at a bar/grill. Saw none of the final game. Although I loved basketball up through the Larry Bird era, bb does nothing for me now.

[thunderclap]

When I watched Requiem for the Big East, I was reminded how much star power college basketball once had. Guys named Ewing and the like were juniors and seniors. I think it made it easier to connect. It did for me anyway.

[M.Fillmore]

Yes the national semi-finals were the highest rated CABLE broadcasts. But I wonder how the numbers compared to the typical numbers when CBS broadcast the games. Not all cable systems carry TBS, not everyone has cable either.