ESPN announces big men’s college basketball ratings for Michigan-Duke, Arizona-Houston
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Saturday delivered a pair of top 10 college basketball blockbusters on the ESPN networks as Duke defeated Michigan 68-63 and Arizona won at Houston 73-66.
The Duke-Michigan, shown on ESPN, averaged 4.3 million viewers, according to the ESPN PR account on X. A maximum of 5.4 million viewers tuned in. That made it the highest-rated men’s college basketball game since 2019 and the seventh-most-watched game since the network has been recording ratings.
Arizona-Houston fared well, too. On average, 2.4 million viewers tuned into the ABC broadcast, peaking at 3.2 million. It’s ABC’s highest-rated men’s college basketball telecast in 24 years.
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For the entire day, ESPN boasted 1.9 billion minutes of viewership across its games. That’s the highest regular-season total on record for men’s college basketball. All told, ESPN’s networks broadcast nine of the country’s 10 highest-rated men’s college basketball games from February 16 to 22.
The network’s Feb. 28 slate features several more appealing matchups. Duke, the No. 1 team in the country, faces No. 11 Virginia at noon ET, while No. 2 Arizona hosts No. 14 Kansas at 4 p.m. ET, both on ESPN. Later, No. 22 Tennessee welcomes No. 17 Alabama at 6 p.m. and No. 7 Florida faces No. 20 Arkansas at 8:30 p.m. ET.
On the women’s side, No. 12 TCU faces No. 15 Baylor on Mar. 1, with College GameDay on hand in Fort Worth for the matchup.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
