Though down from last year, the final of the Big 12 Tournament neared a multi-year high on ESPN.
Saturday’s Kansas/West Virginia Big 12 Tournament final drew a 1.5 final rating and 2.4 million viewers on ESPN, down 12% in ratings and 9% in viewership from Iowa State/Kansas last year (1.7, 2.7M) but up 36% and 39%, respectively, from Baylor/Iowa State in a later window two years ago (1.1, 1.7M).
Despite the decline, the Jayhawks’ win trails only last year as the most-watched Big 12 title game since 2010 (2.8M).
It also earned the eighth-largest audience of the season for a game on cable. Kansas played in four of ESPN’s top ten games this season, with games against Oklahoma ranking tenth (2.2M in February) and eighth (2.8M in January) and their non-conference matchup with Kentucky third (3.0M).
Kansas and Duke tied for the most appearances in ESPN’s top ten this season.
(Sat. numbers via Programming Insider)
