NCAA women’s volleyball hit another TV ratings home run on Saturday night when the ballyhooed showdown between Nebraska and Wisconsin became the most-watched regular-season volleyball match in history.
As the nation’s top-ranked teams, both undefeated, battled in a 190-minute, five-set thriller, the total-average viewership on Big Ten Network was 612,000, according to the overnight Nielsen ratings reported by the @SportsTVRatings site.
Volleyball exceeded 600K for the first time on Big Ten Network, topping the 587,000 that had tuned in for the Nebraska-Wisconsin match on Black Friday, November 25, in 2022. BTN also announced this was the largest-ever audience for a regular-season match on any network. Live volleyball matches on BTN, which has a “reach” of roughly 48 million subscribers, have averaged 142,000 viewers in 2023, an increase of 12.6% from 126,000 in 2022.
The epic tussle on Saturday night, won by the host Huskers (15-13 in the tie-breaking set), had lured a record crowd of 9,198 to the Bob Devaney Center in Lincoln, which has sold out for volleyball 317 consecutive times. The huge throng of red-clad Nebraska supporters created a sizzling…
