Television ratings for every college basketball game during the 2014-15 regular season. [If you want to skip straight to the charts, click here for Part I and click here for Part II].
The Duke/North Carolina rivalry was the top draw during the 2014-15 regular season, generating the two largest audiences on any network. The March 7 meeting led the way with a 2.6 rating and 4.2 million viewers, and the February 18 overtime clash drew a 2.6 and 4.1 million.
The Michigan State/Wisconsin Big Ten Tournament final ranked third, with a 2.6 and 4.0 million on CBS, and the Notre Dame/North Carolina ACC title game ranked fourth (2.2, 3.5M).
Kentucky’s matchup with rival Louisville in December rounded out the top five despite airing on ESPN2, earning a network record 2.1 and 3.5 million viewers. Duke and Kentucky combined for seven of the ten largest audiences during the regular season.
As usual, most college basketball telecasts attracted very few viewers. Of the 979 games on CBS, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, FOX, FS1, FS2 and NBCSN, only 25 had a rating of 1.5 or higher (not including 7 games for which ratings were unavailable). More than half of the games had 0.0 or 0.1 rating, and more than a quarter finished in the 0.2-0.5 range.
The December 2 Mount St. Mary’s/Seton Hall game on Fox Sports 2 was the least-watched of the season, with just 1,000 viewers. Fox Sports 2 aired the 10 of the 11 least-watched games during the regular season, with a Big East team involved in each of the ten.
Ratings/viewership data obtained from Nielsen, Awful Announcing, Sports Business Daily, ESPN. Schedule info from mattsarzsports.com.
