With Kentucky unranked and Tiger Woods overshadowing college basketball, SEC Tournament ratings fell to a five-year low on Sunday.
Sunday’s Kentucky-Tennessee SEC Tournament final delivered a 1.5 rating and 2.55 million viewers on ESPN, down a tick in ratings and 4% in viewership from last year (UK-Arkansas: 1.6, 2.67M) and down 21% and 12% respectively from 2016 (UK-Texas A&M: 1.9, 2.9M).
The Wildcats’ win ranks as the lowest rated and least-watched SEC Tournament final since 2013 (Mississippi-UF: 1.1, 1.65M). Since hitting a 2.1 and 3.3 million in 2015 — Kentucky’s undefeated regular season — ratings and viewership for the title game have declined in three straight years.
The game faced unusually tough competition from the PGA Tour. Golf Channel’s competing window had a 1.5 and 2.4 million, nearly quadrupling the previous year.
In what may be a first, the SEC title game was the most-watched college basketball telecast on Selection Sunday. It beat the actual Selection Show, which drew 2.50 million on TBS. Usually, the SEC game trails both the Selection Show and the Big Ten Tournament final. The latter moved up a week this year.
In other action, Saturday’s Kentucky-Alabama semifinal drew a 1.3 (-12%) and 2.0 million (-11%). Last year’s game featured the same matchup. Later in the day, Tennessee-Arkansas had a 1.15 (-3%) and 1.8 million (-1%).
[Numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 3.13]
