It has not been the best of weeks for the Big East Conference. After seeing five of its six teams that earned an NCAA Tournament bid get eliminated during the first weekend, including standard-bearing league champion and 1-seed Villanova, the conference did not receive encouraging news after the release of the TV ratings achieved by this year’s Big East Tournament.
According to sports media website Awful Announcing, which tracks TV ratings for professional and college sports, the 2015 Big East Tournament Final broadcast on Fox Sports 1 between Villanova and Xavier, drew a 0.3 overnight rating, equating to over 414,000 viewers. That’s a 40 percent drop in viewership from the 2014 final between Providence and Creighton, which drew a 0.5 rating.
This year’s 0.3 rating, however, is down 86 percent compared to the league’s 2013 final, which was broadcast on ESPN. That final, played between Syracuse and Louisville, drew a 2.3 rating.
The ACC Tournament Final was broadcasted on ESPN opposite the Big East Final and earned a 2.3 rating. The ACC supplanted the Big East as ESPN’s primary college basketball conference when the Big East opted to broadcast its games with Fox Sports 1 in 2013. The least-viewed ACC Tournament game, a second round matchup between Clemson and Florida State, averaged 479,000 viewers, 65,000 more than the Big East Final.
On March 5, the Voice published a feature regarding how the new Big East has affected Georgetown athletics, including the men’s basketball program, both competitively and financially. The feature showed that television ratings for the men’s basketball team dropped significantly between the 2012-13 season, when the Big East’s games were primarily broadcast on ESPN, and the 2013-14 season, the first year of a 12-year $500 million contract between Fox Sports 1 and the Big East Conference.
Despite the ratings decline, Georgetown Athletic Director Lee Reed has not been discouraged by the lower television ratings.
“We’re pleased with having FOX as our broadcast partner. As a member of the Big East and because of FOX, every Georgetown basketball game is televised nationally,” he wrote in an e-mail to the Voice. “The addition of two national FOX games this year, as well as cross promotion by the network through other sports such as the NFL and UFC, are also a plus. We remain confident that FoxSports 1 will continue to grow in the coming years and we appreciate the partnership.”
