Can Men’s March Madness Seize Spotlight a Year After Women’s Historic TV Victory?

After playing second fiddle to their female counterparts during last year’s March Madness run, can the men reclaim the spotlight as television’s marquee attraction during this year’s national championship tournaments?The answer is in question, which says something about how women’s college basketball has progressed without Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and an undefeated South Carolina team. Those three forces — especially Ms. Clark’s unprecedented college career — were key to the women’s 2024 NCAA Championship Game drawing more television viewers than the men’s title game for the first time.Now Ms. Clark and Ms. Reese are in the WNBA and there is no team going for an undefeated season, yet plenty of eyes will be watching a women’s tournament that will feature parity and emerging stars like USC’s JuJu Watkins, UConn’s Paige Bueckers, Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo, and others.“No matter who you end up playing, it’s going to be a pain in the ass,” the UConn women’s coach, Geno Auriemma, told reporters. “That’s all there is to it.”The women’s 2024 national championship game, in which South Carolina defeated Iowa, drew an average of 18.9 million viewers last year with a peak of 24.1 million. An average of 14.8 million watched the UConn men’s team win its second consecutive title by defeating Purdue.Mr. Clark, who set the NCAA all-time scoring record, was a big reason for the attention, but ratings have remained steady since her departure. ESPN reported a 3 percent increase in the ratings for women’s basketball from last year and a 41 percent increase from two seasons ago.A December matchup between USC and UConn peaked at 3.8 million and a double-header featuring UConn against South Carolina and LSU versus Texas drew 1.8 million and 1.7 million viewers. The Big Ten championship game between USC and UCLA attracted 1.44 million viewers.The women’s tournament begins on Wednesday with Princeton playing Iowa State in the First Four. Ms. Watkins, who averages 24.6 points per game, wore a workout shirt during a media session on Sunday that read, “Nothing Easy.”“To be able to combine everybody together and create so much excitement around women’s basketball, it’s amazing,” she said, adding, “The NCAA is everybody’s dream. I grew up watching, making my own brackets. Now I get to be a part of it.”The men’s tournament, beginning Tuesday with Alabama State against Saint Francis in the First Four, offers plenty of intrigue. UConn is going for a rare three-peat and would normally be a must-watch. But the Huskies, ranked no. 3 in the nation when the season began, struggled with consistency and dropped out of the Top 25 in February. UConn finished 23-10 to earn an eighth seed and is considered a long shot to reach the Final Four. The Huskies play no. 9 Oklahoma in the opening round.“If you play well and coach well no matter what you did in the regular season you can advance,” UConn’s men’s coach, Dan Hurley, said. “It never gets old.”The power teams are no. 1 seeds Auburn (28-5), Florida (30-4), Duke (31-3), and Houston (30-4). But the best stories are St. John’s, a no. 2 seed, and the record representation from the Southeastern Conference.In his second season as head coach, Rick Pitino guided the Red Storm to its first outright Big East title in 40 years and first Big East Tournament championship in 25 years. The Red Storm (30-4) face Omaha (22-12) on Thursday at Providence. Mr. Pitino is trying to become the first coach to lead four different teams to the Final Four after doing it with Providence, Louisville, and Kentucky.“When you have a lot of experience you learn what not to do as much as what to do,” Mr. Pitino said. “You must understand that you have to stay focused. This is the time when everybody is filling out brackets and you have to understand to focus on every little thing that goes into an NCAA game.”It’s likely an SEC team might be on the Red Storm’s path toward the Final Four at San Antonio. Fourteen SEC teams were selected to compete in this year’s national tournament, shattering the record of 11 teams from the Big East Conference in 2011, when UConn won the national title. In addition to Auburn and Florida, Alabama and Tennessee are no. 2 seeds, Kentucky is a no. 3, and Texas A&M is a no. 4, while Ole Miss and Missouri are no. 6 seeds. Mississippi State is no. 8, while Georgia and Oklahoma are no. 9 seeds. Arkansas and Vanderbilt are no. 10 seeds, and Texas is a no. 11.The SEC was 59-19 against major opposition this season, including a 14-2 mark in the ACC-SEC challenge.“Our regular season speaks for itself,” the SEC’s associate commissioner for men’s basketball, Garth Glissman, told CBS Sports. “But that doesn’t guarantee any particular set of outcomes in the postseason.”The last SEC team to win a national championship was Kentucky, in 2021.Florida is the betting favorite among most bookmakers to win the men’s tournament, followed by Duke, Auburn, and Houston. In the women’s tournament, South Carolina is a slim favorite over UConn, followed by UCLA, USC, Texas, and Notre Dame.

Can Men’s March Madness Seize Spotlight a Year After Women’s Historic TV Victory?

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