March Madness may end up April Anarchy, at least in the men’s NCAA basketball tournament that wraps up without any of the sport’s blueblood programs vying to cut down the nets at Houston’s NRG Stadium.
That could lead to some dismal TV viewership numbers.
And on the women’s side, the most anticipated game may not be the championship but Friday’s semifinal that pits defending champion South Carolina against Iowa in a showdown between two of college basketball’s best players in either tournament — the Gamecocks’ Aliyah Boston versus the Hawkeyes’ Caitlin Clark at 9 p.m. on ESPN from American Airlines Center in Dallas.
That could lead to some not-dismal TV viewership numbers.
The other women’s semifinal is Final Four newcomer Virginia Tech against LSU at 7 p.m. Friday, also on ESPN, with the final scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Sunday on ABC.
The men’s semifinals pit Florida Atlantic and San Diego State at 6:09 p.m. Saturday followed by UConn and Miami (Fla.) at 8:49 p.m., with the winners meeting at 9:20 p.m. Monday.
Other than Connecticut, the men’s teams are all in their first Final Four and all games are on CBS. This is also the first men’s Final Four without a No. 1 seed since 2011.
So how will the TV ratings fare, without any of the men’s patrician programs…
