Do you need proof of the monster that is college football? Here's one reason ESPN is investing mega-millions into the sport, including an annual rights fee of $470 million for the college football playoff, which starts at the end of the 2014 season--the 2011 regular season matchup between Alabama and LSU pulled a 11.9 rating on CBS. In comparison, the highest rated regular season college basketball broadcast, between Duke and North Carolina, had a 2.7 rating on ESPN.
The difference in the two help illustrate the striking comparison to "the best regular season in sports," as touted by college football marketers, versus the hoops regular season that detractors opine has lost its meaning given the expanded field of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament.
I recently attended the IMG Intercollegiate Athletics Forum in New York and the hot topics were conference realignment and the coming college football playoff. The phrase "college basketball" was not uttered until well into the afternoon of day one of the conference.
Football is driving the conference realignment bus and college basketball rivalries are the collateral damage. The Duke-Carolina rivalry, considered the pre-eminent matchup in college hoops, had the best regular season television rating of the season, yet it was only a quarter of the rating achieved by Bama-LSU. The highest-rated broadcast network games were North Carolina-Kentucky, 2.0; Ohio State-Michigan State, 2.0; and Kansas-Missouri, 1.9--all on CBS.
The ratings for the 2011-2012 college basketball season do not represent declines over prior years as both CBS and ESPN have had steady or slightly improved ratings since 2008-2009. However, the emphasis continues to build on March Madness as TV advertisers invest far more during the tournament than during the regular season. Nielsen research indicates that advertisers spent more than $1 billion on the 2011 NCAA Tournament compared with just under $300 million during the 2010-2011 regular season.
What's the solution? I'm not sure there is one given that college basketball gets started in November when college football is in the midst of its important final regular season games. The attention then shifts to conference championship games and then to bowl games, meaning that TV eyeballs don't really start focusing on college hoops until mid-to-late January.
College basketball still produces the best consecutive three weeks in sports but has to accept that it is the afterthought in the new world order of college athletics and athletics department revenue. Duke and North Carolina will always be great theater but pales to the appeal of the "one loss and done" format of March Madness. That, my fellow hoops fanatics, is a shame.
"Must See Rivalries"
Louisville-Kentucky
Ohio State-Michigan State
Indiana-Purdue
"Going, Going, Gone"
Kansas-Missouri
Syracuse-Georgetown
Pittsburgh-West Virginia
(Source: Sports Business Journal, November 2012)
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