As the Duke Blue Devils defeated the North Carolina Tar Heels in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament on Friday, the game attained a top-five finish among college basketball audiences recorded for the season. The matchup averaged 2.26 million viewers and a 1.1 rating on ESPN, marking the fifth most-watched men’s college basketball contest of the season; however, the game attained the lowest average viewership among its three head-to-head matchups. Viewership data was first reported by Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch.
Earlier in the month, Duke-UNC averaged 3 million viewers on ESPN, which was the second most-watched men’s college basketball contest of the year, while the first matchup in early February averaged 2.29 million viewers on the network. Dave O’Brien, Cory Alexander and Angel Gray called the action from Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C. as the game elicited the largest ACC Tournament audience outside of the final since the two teams faced off in the 2019 semifinals and averaged 4.15 million viewers. The game was also the least-watched ACC Tournament between both teams since the teams played in the tournament finals in 2011.
With 31 automatic bids on the line, there was prominent college basketball action across other conferences. The Big East Tournament semifinal game between Creighton and UConn from Madison Square Garden in New York, N.Y. averaged 1.48 million viewers and 0.8 rating on FOX, becoming the most-viewed men’s Big East semifinal game in network history. Furthermore, the victory by St. John’s over Marquette garnered an average of 1.31 million viewers, claiming the second spot among most-watched Big East semifinal games ever broadcast by FOX Sports. Both games featured Gus Johnson, Jim Jackson and Kristina Pink on the call.
The Big 12 Tournament semifinals between Houston and Brigham Young averaged 396,000 viewers and a 0.21 rating on ESPN2. Lewis notes that the game was down from the tilt between Houston and Texas Tech last year, which averaged 449,000 viewers on a 0.25 rating. Viewership data for the other Big 12 semifinal game on Friday night between Arizona and Texas Tech was not available. Announcers for both games included Jon Sciambi, Fran Fraschilla and Kris Budden calling the action live from T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo.
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