The NCAA News - News and Features

April 20, 1998

Women's basketball tourney features 47 televised games

The television ratings for the 1998 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship declined compared to 1997, but there may have been more good TV news than bad for the event.

Most notably, the Division I women's tournament was much more available than ever before. Of the 63 games played in the tournament, 47 were telecast -- including all games from the second round on.

And although much was made of the decline in ratings for the championship game between Louisiana Tech University and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, an ESPN executive said the figure was impressive considering the nature of the game. The game ranked among the highest-rated college basketball games ever to appear on ESPN, men or women.

"For the championship game, 3.7 is a huge number," said Josh Krulewitz, communications coordinator for ESPN. "The game was exciting and fast. If it had been closer, it would have gotten a 4.0 or more."

Tennessee won the game by 18 points, but the outcome was decided early when the Lady Vols sprinted to a 42-17 first-half lead.

Krulewitz said that the women's championship has attracted ratings of 3.7, 4.0 and 3.7 over the past three years. "Those are huge numbers for any basketball we do," he said. "And this was not a wire-to-wire game. If it had been, we would have seen another increase this year."

Despite the lopsided nature of the championship game, it was watched in 2.5 million households. The overall tournament rating dropped from 1.3 to 1.1, a 16 percent decline.

What may be more significant to the membership, however, was the increased availability of the games themselves.

Chris Farrow, NCAA assistant director of broadcast services, said that of the 16 second-round games, eight were on ESPN or ESPN2, six were produced by NCAA Productions and two were produced locally and uplinked by NCAA Productions. All of those games were placed on the "Full Court" package and made available via satellite to small-dish provider services.

All regional games appeared on ESPN or ESPN2, while the Women's Final Four was on ESPN.

In addition, 16 first-round games were produced (five by ESPN and ESPN2, one by NCAA Productions and 10 locally), bringing the total to 47.

Not only were more games available, they were reaching more viewers.

Josh Krulewitz, communications coordinator for ESPN, said that an overlooked part of the story has to do with the emergence of ESPN2. He noted that while the rating for women's games shown on ESPN2 was 0.4 for both 1997 and 1998, the number of households tuned in was actually 29 percent higher in 1998 -- 213,000 vs. 165,000 in 1997.

Krulewitz also noted that ESPN's commitment to improve the production of the event is beginning to pay off.

Production for ESPN women's basketball, especially for the Women's Final Four, includes better camera angles, more enlightening replays and more use of informative graphics. "People are starting to notice what we're putting into this," he said.

The final game of the 1998 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Championship benefited from a move to prime time, jumping from a 0.7 rating last year to a 1.0 this year.

The championship game between the University of Michigan and Boston College was watched in 737,000 households this year, compared to 511,000 last year.

ESPN produced the semifinals and finals. NCAA Productions produced four first-round and four quarterfinal games, meaning all 11 games in the event were televised.

It is only the second NCAA championship in which all games were televised (Division I men's basketball being the other).

About 2,000 purchased a $29.95 pay-per-view package that enabled them to view all of those games. The games were made available through DirecTV, Echostar and local cable systems. That figure surpassed the number of subscribers for the Major League Soccer pay-per-view season package.

Farrow said that the pay-per-view option was popular with those who purchased it.

"We had fewer complaints this year than we've had in the past," Farrow said. "People were happy to have the opportunity to watch all of the games."

All-time ratings

The highest-rated college basketball games carried on ESPN:

1. March 15, 1990. NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship first round.

2. March 30, 1997. NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship final game.

3. March 8, 1998. Atlantic Coast Conference men's championship game.

4. March 15, 1990. NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship first round.

5. March 29, 1998. NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship final game.

Women's basketball television ratings

FIRST ROUND

Friday, March 13 -- 6 p.m. -- Fairfield vs. Connecticut -- ESPN2 -- 0.5

-- 11:59 p.m. -- Santa Clara vs. Arizona -- ESPN2 -- 0.2

Saturday, March 14 -- 9:30 p.m. -- Arkansas vs. Hawaii -- ESPN2 -- 0.3

-- 11:59 p.m. -- Harvard vs. Stanford -- ESPN -- 0.6

SECOND ROUND

Sunday, March 15 -- 1 p.m. -- Florida International vs. North Carolina -- ESPN2 -- 0.2

-- 7 p.m. -- Nebraska vs. Old Dominion -- ESPN2 -- 0.4

-- 9 p.m. -- George Washington vs. Connecticut -- ESPN2 -- 0.9

-- 11 p.m. -- Virginia vs. Arizona -- ESPN2 -- 0.2

Monday, March 16 -- 7:30 p.m. -- Louisville vs. Duke -- ESPN2 -- 0.6 --

-- 9:30 p.m. -- UC Santa Barbara vs. Illinois -- ESPN2 -- 0.4

-- 9:30 p.m. -- Western Kentucky vs. Tennessee -- ESPN -- 1.2

-- 11:59 p.m. -- Harvard vs. Arkansas -- ESPN -- 0.4

REGIONAL SEMIFINALS

Saturday, March 21 -- 11:30 a.m. -- North Carolina State vs. Old Dominion -- ESPN2 -- 0.3

-- Noon -- Louisiana Tech vs. Alabama -- ESPN -- 0.5

-- 2 p.m. -- Arizona vs. Connecticut -- ESPN -- 1.1

-- 2:30 p.m. -- Notre Dame vs. Purdue -- ESPN2 -- 0.4

-- 8 p.m. -- Rutgers vs. Tennessee -- ESPN -- 1.1

-- 10 p.m. -- Duke vs. Florida -- ESPN -- 0.8

-- 10:30 p.m. -- Illinois vs. North Carolina -- ESPN2 -- 0.3

Sunday, March 22 -- 12:30 a.m. -- Arkansas vs. Kansas -- ESPN -- 0.4

REGIONAL FINALS

Monday, March 23 -- 5 p.m. -- North Carolina State vs. Connecticut -- ESPN -- 0.7

-- 7:30 p.m. -- Purdue vs. Louisiana Tech -- ESPN -- 0.7

-- 9:30 p.m. -- North Carolina vs. Tennessee -- ESPN -- 1.3

-- 11:59 p.m. -- Arkansas vs. Duke -- ESPN -- 0.6

WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR

Friday, March 27 -- 7 p.m. -- North Carolina State vs. Louisiana Tech -- ESPN -- 1.1

-- 9 p.m. -- Arkansas vs. Tennessee -- ESPN -- 1.5

Sunday, March 29 -- 8:30 p.m. -- Louisiana Tech vs. Tennessee -- ESPN -- 3.7