Florida scored 100 points and won by 23 in a statement SEC victory over Alabama before its rocking home crowd at the O’Connell Center last Sunday afternoon.
As it turns out, the win and the score weren’t the only statements that the Gators made before a national TV audience watching on ABC. That audience was historically good on the Sunday that fell in between the NFL’s conference championship games and the Super Bowl. Perhaps that played into the massive ratings that Florida and Alabama delivered on the first day of February, but the matchup was juicy in its own right, whether there were NFL games or not to get in the way.
It was revealed on Thursday afternoon that 1.6 million viewers watched the 100-77 Gators victory in the battle between SEC rivals and head coaches who couldn’t stop chirping at each other in the leadup to the game. That huge viewership made UF-Bama the most-watched men’s college basketball game on ABC since 2008-09.
That’s a very long time ago, and that’s a lot of men’s college basketball games ago that have been aired on ABC since 2008-09.
The historically great ratings just backed up how much the Gators-Crimson Tide matchup was anticipated by SEC fans and college basketball fans in general.
The Sunday afternoon stage was made to order for huge TV ratings, and those ratings didn’t disappoint, even if Alabama’s second-half performance did.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
