[blake5676]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

You really didn't address many of the arguments that have been made. I don't recall anyone saying regular season basketball games on Tuesday nights are going to draw what football games on Saturdays will. Seems like a strawman argument.

I'm not saying they should. But if a game had meaning, and was against historically good schools that were both currently ranked, I would think if people cared that more than 1 million would tune in, no?

What is being argued: college football's title game (and BCS games to boot) draw what the hoops title game and Final Four draw. That says a lot.

What does that say? I would hope it draws similar. It's the biggest event in the #1 and #2 sports at the college level. That being said, there is a finite interest in every sport. Some people watch and some just don't. Neither are on par with the NFL.

It's pure nonsense to say nobody cares about the sport until the tournament. If that were the case nobody would even watch the tournament because there would be zero context.

It ISN'T pure nonsense because the numbers prove it's true. Did you miss where only NINE out of 942 CBB games got higher than a 2.0 rating? Or that 770 of those games had 0.5 (about 600k viewers) or lower? Or how about the conference championship games in basketball, which had the six major conferences come in with a COMBINED 8.9 rating when you added them all up? Those were spread out over a Saturday and Sunday, none overlapping, on major networks. The SEC title football game did that by itself. More than the equivalent basketball game for the Big 12, PAC, ACC, SEC, B1G and Big East ALTOGETHER. So again, nobody cares about the sport until March.

We have also pointed out several times that the ratings for football are a piss in the wind compared to the NFL. So while football is the most popular sport, it's only the NFL version. The year end big games in college draw what the NBA and college hoops draw, miles behind the NFL. What is it about the college version that drives people away?

Relevance?

We've also mentioned that the ratings themselves are extremely concentrated in 1 quadrant of the country. When you cite "relevance" and "popularity", it is critical to couch that in terms of 1 area. The other 3 sections of the country find it neither relevant or popular.

You'll have to forgive me...I haven't seen any evidence that shows this. But wouldn't that make sense, considering it's the best conference with the best players? It may be concentrated more in the south, but don't fool yourself that other areas don't care.

Exactly what part (14M) of the country would you guess was watching the Ohio St-Michigan St regular season game? Obviously not the same part (1.3M) that watched KU-KSU in basketball on a Saturday???

Finally, if anyone really spent any time watching Alabama play Mizzou in basketball, may god have mercy on their souls. I will pray for them.

This....I will concede to you. Could not possibly agree any more.