Boosted by a close game and the presence of John Wall‘s Kentucky Wildcats, the SEC Championship Game drew the highest college basketball rating of the season.
Kentucky’s win over Mississippi St. drew a 2.6 final rating and 4.1 million viewers on ABC last Sunday, up 37% in ratings from last year’s game between Mississippi St. and Tennessee (1.9).
Excluding the 2008 game, which aired on ESPN2 due to weather-related delays, this marks the highest rated SEC Championship Game since ’99 (2.7).
Mississippi St./Kentucky was the top sporting event of the week, topping all other conference championship games, as well as NBA, the NHL and golf.
Additionally, the game ranks as the highest rated, most-viewed college basketball telecast of the regular season — topping the previous high set by Kansas/Tennessee on CBS in January (2.5, 3.9 mil).
On Saturday, the Tennessee/Kentucky semifinal drew a 1.6 final rating and 2.6 million viewers. Meanwhile, the Mississippi St./Vanderbilt semi drew a 1.1 rating.
