The championship game of the Big 12 Tournament was the most-watched in five years. In other news, the Pac-12 Tournament final had a dramatic increase over last year, and the American Athletic title game had a modest decline.
Five-Year High For Big 12 Championship
- Last Saturday’s Iowa State/Kansas Big 12 Tournament championship game drew 2.7 million viewers on ESPN, up 52% from Baylor/Iowa State in a later timeslot last year (1.7M), up 22% from Kansas/Kansas State in 2013 (2.2M), and the most-watched edition of the game in five years — since another Kansas/Kansas State matchup in 2010 (2.8M).
Huge Increase For Pac-12 Title Game
- The Arizona/Oregon Pac-12 Tournament championship game earned 1.9 million viewers late last Saturday, up 174% from UCLA/Arizona on Fox Sports 1 last year (680K), up 20% from UCLA/Oregon in 2013 (1.6M), and the largest audience for the game since CBS last aired coverage in 2012 (2.1M).
American Athletic Title Game Down Slightly
- ESPN earned 1.6 million viewers for Sunday’s SMU/Connecticut American Athletic Conference title game, down 8% from Louisville/Connecticut on a Saturday evening last year (1.7M). Compared to the SEC championship game in the same window last year, viewership declined by 48% from 3.0 million. The AAC, formerly the Big East, easily topped the championship of the new Big East on Fox Sports 1 (414K).
