I know longer watch MLB and NBA because of overexposure from lengthened seasons/playoffs. Then the disease was contracted by the NFL. Good bye!! Now the disease inflicts CBB. Hard to give up 'The Dance' but it may be on the horizon.
Were you a fan of one class, everybody-makes-it, Indiana high school state tournament? It seemed to be a popular event for a number of years.
Yep!
My declining interest probably has more to do with my age, not being as interested as when I was young.
But some of it has to do with 'which stage of the season is this? Which round of the playoffs? Am I supposed to care yet? Does this regular season game mean anything as far as the post season?' And I just don't try to keep up. I even miss a lot of the baseball playoffs because I plan to tune in later, then forget because I'm not invested early in one or two teams. Used to never miss a playoff game.
I understand the 'every class level gets a trophy' tournament gets more viewers, more attendance, in total, so it met it's stated goals.Were you a fan of one class, everybody-makes-it, Indiana high school state tournament? It seemed to be a popular event for a number of years.
But I am 60. And I think there was a lot of state pride in 'just one tournament', 'we take our basketball seriously in Indiana'. So on some level I prefer the old way.
And I blame it in part for our Hoosiers decline. 🤣 Makes perfect sense to me that once it's no longer as cool, that Purdue would ascend.
I know longer watch MLB and NBA because of overexposure from lengthened seasons/playoffs.
There are reasons to be down on the NBA, such as the trend toward only shooting 3's or dunks, refs favoring stars, and player "load management". But lengthened seasons/playoffs doesn't appear at least to me to be one of them. The NBA season is as long as it always has been (82 games), though there are proposals to shorten it. NBA playoffs have only been tweaked a little. First round series did go from best-of-5 to best-of-7 at some point, and they added the "play-in" round for teams 7-10, which is actually pretty cool. Gives 4 more teams something to play for late in the year, making late season games more meaningful.
"You can't make someone listen to reason if they aren't willing to think"-- Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
@openwheel I think a pretty big reason for most of OUR declining interest is our team has very, very rarely been a factor in the tournament, since the mid 90s. So I think many of us are latching on to these changes, and putting much more energy in to them, than we would if IU was annually competitive in the tournament.
Any of you telling me you won't excited as hell this year if IU is a top 4/5 seed? And you won't be anxiously watching the 12/13 seed playin in games to see who IU is going to be playing? If so... lies!!!
And on the other end... while being an 11+ seed, and playing in the play in game would be frustrating, I'm sure, on some levels. You/we will all be watching that game intently, just like we did when IU beat Wyoming a few years ago. That was a fun and exciting game. And it will be this year if that's what happens.
I think the bigger impact, which has been touched on by some posters in this thread, is it will water down the regular season a little bit. But even then, for IU, when/if we get back to being competitive, and competing for regular season B10 titles... that will be so welcomed, and exciting, that I don't see any of these new dynamics applying muich to OUR fandom and excitement.
This is great news for IU; they can actually make the tourney now. If the NCAA can somehow make it easier for IU to beat NW, we're in business.
I'd rather see extra round or weekend of NCAA playin tourney elimination games than conference tourneys that seem meaningless. I know money is a factor but unless IU or a couple other NCAA teams I like were playing or I was scouting a game with players that could wind up on my favorite NBA team, I do not watch conference tourneys. I don't know a a solution but the regular season conference champs should get auto bids and the rest should have to play for the other bids. Now it looks like the bottom 24 teams have to play for a final 64 bid. Those in the middle get free entry based on NCAA committee decisions.
I'd rather see extra round or weekend of NCAA playin tourney elimination games than conference tourneys that seem meaningless. I know money is a factor but unless IU or a couple other NCAA teams I like were playing or I was scouting a game with players that could wind up on my favorite NBA team, I do not watch conference tourneys. I don't know a a solution but the regular season conference champs should get auto bids and the rest should have to play for the other bids. Now it looks like the bottom 24 teams have to play for a final 64 bid. Those in the middle get free entry based on NCAA committee decisions.
Over the past five years, viewership for men's college basketball conference championship games has trended significantly upward, reaching levels not seen in decades. This growth culminated in 2026, which saw the most-watched tournament cycle since the early 1990s.
- Big Ten Dominance: The Big Ten championship has consistently been the highest-rated conference final. In 2026, it set an all-time record with 4.72 million viewers, surpassing a long-standing 2013 high. In 2024, it was also the most-watched title game on any network with 3.646 million viewers, a 15% increase from the prior year.
- ACC Resilience: After hitting multi-year lows in 2019-2020, the ACC title game surged. The 2026 Duke-Virginia final drew 4.09 million viewers on ESPN, a 33% increase over 2025 and the third-largest audience for any ACC tournament game.
- Overall Growth: The broader "Championship Week" saw its most-watched performance in six years during 2025. This momentum carried into the 2026 NCAA Tournament, which averaged 10.9 million viewers, a 7% increase over 2025 and the second-highest average since 1994.
- Big 12 and SEC Peaks: The Big 12 championship reached a new high in 2026 with 853,000 viewers, up 12% year-over-year. The SEC also saw strong growth, with its 2026 final drawing 1.4 million viewers, the second-best performance on record for that conference.
@gros-louis Per my other post on this... I think this is mostly an IU apathy problem, for most of us on this board.
Maybe. And I'm not glad they're going to 76, particularly on the women's side, though that's more for Title IX reasons, but I'm also not going to piss and moan about it. If I'm not interested, I won't watch.@gros-louis Per my other post on this... I think this is mostly an IU apathy problem, for most of us on this board.
But to counter your point, I've not heard ANYONE (talking head, fan, etc.) in favor of this, so I'm not sure it is just an IU thing. But I also think that despite people crying about this now, people will watch. Probably not to the levels they do on Thurs/Fri and so on, but they will watch. And there will be good games. And there will be storylines.
@shooter 14 teams in 1970, 30? today. Season has grown boring as hell. Even 7th game of championship final is irrelevant by comparison.
@gros-louis Oh I don't want it either. I'm mainly referring to why IU fans have lost interest in the NCAA tournament. And how all these rule changes become much more "white noise" when/if IU becomes an upper tier program again.
The play in games weren't a thing when I fell in love with the NCAA tournament. But I intently watch them now. And I suspect I'll more intently watch it with 24 teams instead of 8. Especially when IU is involved and/or directly affected by the outcomes.
@iunorth I agree for many on here, IU's decline influences the tournament being less interesting to this group. I don't agree that expanding to 76 teams will not dilute interest. I think Dayton has really adopted the first four games and they have their own local interest that drives ticket sales there. Googling some of the attendance and viewership, it said First 4 TV ratings were much higher this year led by the Miami v SMU game. I'd guess that had more to do with the interest from those specific fanbases than an uptick in interest overall. The general bball public was more interested in Miami because of the undefeated streak. I think dumping in 16 more midling teams will lower interest overall and I think that will drag down ratings. I do exactly what someone suggested: don't watch until it's down to the 64 team field, but I think adding in a bunch of mid tier teams that really have no shot of winning the tourney or likely even advancing to a F4 will lower overall interest.
I'd rather see extra round or weekend of NCAA playin tourney elimination games than conference tourneys that seem meaningless. I know money is a factor but unless IU or a couple other NCAA teams I like were playing or I was scouting a game with players that could wind up on my favorite NBA team, I do not watch conference tourneys. I don't know a a solution but the regular season conference champs should get auto bids and the rest should have to play for the other bids. Now it looks like the bottom 24 teams have to play for a final 64 bid. Those in the middle get free entry based on NCAA committee decisions.
Over the past five years, viewership for men's college basketball conference championship games has trended significantly upward, reaching levels not seen in decades. This growth culminated in 2026, which saw the most-watched tournament cycle since the early 1990s.Viewership Trends (2022–2026)
- Big Ten Dominance: The Big Ten championship has consistently been the highest-rated conference final. In 2026, it set an all-time record with 4.72 million viewers, surpassing a long-standing 2013 high. In 2024, it was also the most-watched title game on any network with 3.646 million viewers, a 15% increase from the prior year.
- ACC Resilience: After hitting multi-year lows in 2019-2020, the ACC title game surged. The 2026 Duke-Virginia final drew 4.09 million viewers on ESPN, a 33% increase over 2025 and the third-largest audience for any ACC tournament game.
- Overall Growth: The broader "Championship Week" saw its most-watched performance in six years during 2025. This momentum carried into the 2026 NCAA Tournament, which averaged 10.9 million viewers, a 7% increase over 2025 and the second-highest average since 1994.
- Big 12 and SEC Peaks: The Big 12 championship reached a new high in 2026 with 853,000 viewers, up 12% year-over-year. The SEC also saw strong growth, with its 2026 final drawing 1.4 million viewers, the second-best performance on record for that conference.
That's the money factor. How many of the Big conference tourney games determines who gets a bid? Those that do involve bubble teams and mostly earlier round games. I don't care either way or how you get to the 64. Once you get there the games will be good. I'm just giving opinion that I'd rather see elimination games for bids over conference tourneys.