The NFL is down to its final four. The NFC and AFC will crown their conference champions this Sunday. The season has delivered memorable moments, dramatic comebacks, and stunning performances few could have predicted. Along the way, the league has posted gains in viewership across networks and streaming platforms. Now, it’s preparing to celebrate the Super Bowl’s 60th anniversary in less than three weeks on NBC Sports.
The Super Bowl has served as a beacon of American pop culture for decades. Football’s pageantry blends seamlessly with advertising, spectacle, and pop culture, all capped by the annual halftime show. Different audiences tune in for different reasons. As a result, the Super Bowl has set viewership records in each of the past five years.
Yet every January, the same debate resurfaces. Sports pundits spend days speculating about which matchup the NFL wants. Would the league prefer the Denver Broncos or the New England Patriots? Does the NFL need the nation’s second-largest market in Los Angeles, or would a Seattle Seahawks appearance in Santa Clara be just as compelling? No matter the answer, the conclusion remains unchanged. The NFL does not experience meaningful viewership swings based on the teams involved. So why does the discussion even exist?
Among the four major professional sports, football stands alone. Matchups do not drive its championship viewership. There is no seven-game series and no international wrinkle to complicate interest. In the United States, football rules the sports landscape with an iron grip.
The teams involved do not matter.
That statement cannot be applied to the NBA, MLB, or NHL. The evidence lives in the numbers.
Last summer, the NBA Finals reignited the familiar debate about small-market matchups. The Oklahoma City Thunder’s seven-game series against the Indiana Pacers became the least-watched Finals since 2007, excluding the pandemic-affected seasons of 2020 and 2021. The quality of play did not save the ratings.
While the NFL’s final four this season do not come from small markets, no one would panic if Green Bay or Buffalo reached the Super Bowl. History says the audience would still show up.
The NHL faces a similar challenge. Last year’s Stanley Cup Final between Florida and Edmonton produced the lowest American viewership since Tampa Bay defeated Montreal in 2021. The series averaged 2.5 million viewers, a 40 percent decline from the previous year. That came despite a compelling narrative featuring the Panthers chasing consecutive titles and Connor McDavid, one of the greatest players of his generation.
Most NFL preseason games outperform the average Stanley Cup Final broadcast.
Baseball offered the lone bright spot. The World Series featuring the Dodgers and Blue Jays averaged 15.7 million viewers on FOX Sports. The numbers benefited from Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel, which boosted measurement across multiple sports. Even with that adjustment, one question remains unavoidable.
Would the audience have been that large without the Dodgers? Historical trends suggest otherwise. The World Series eclipsed an average of 12 million viewers only once in the four editions preceding 2024.
In the NBA, MLB, and NHL, markets matter. Teams matter. In the NFL, they do not.
That separation did not happen by accident. The NFL engineered it. Scarcity, urgency, national windows, and straightforward storytelling turned every game into an event rather than content. Football trained its audience to show up regardless of logos, stars, or geography.
The NBA, MLB, and NHL are not short on star power or narratives. Their problem is dilution. Overexposure and endless inventory have conditioned fans to believe they can tune in later. Football eliminated that mindset years ago.
Which raises the uncomfortable question. What can the NBA, MLB, and NHL do to make their championship series matter to the casual fan? Is there anything?
Until those leagues transform their finals into can’t-miss events rather than optional viewing, the teams involved will continue to drive interest. Markets will continue to influence outcomes.
Each league faces the same core issues. They lack urgency and struggle with presentation. They wrestle with identity when their biggest moments arrive.
Until those leagues stop hoping the right teams will rescue their championship stages and start designing those stages to be unmissable no matter who appears, the gap between football and everyone else will continue to widen.
The viewing experience must match the moment’s hype. That is where the NFL continues to excel. The event itself, not the participants, drives the machine.
Is there a matchup the NFL prefers among its final four? No. The question does not deserve airtime this week. Save the column inches, radio segments, and television debates. Do not flood timelines or chase engagement.
Until the NBA, MLB, and NHL stop searching for the “right” teams and start engineering championships that feel unavoidable, the conversation will never change.
Football will keep winning. The rest will keep wondering why.
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John Mamola is Barrett Media’s sports editor and daily sports columnist. He brings over two decades of experience (Chicago, Tampa/St Petersburg) in the broadcast industry with expertise in brand management, sales, promotions, producing, imaging, hosting, talent coaching, talent development, web development, social media strategy and design, video production, creative writing, partnership building, communication/networking with a long track record of growth and success. He is a five-time recognized top 20 program director in a major market via Barrett Medi’s Top 20 series and has been honored internally multiple times as station/brand of the year (Tampa, FL) and employee of the month (Tampa, FL) by iHeartMedia. Connect with John by email at John@BarrettMedia.com.
