The television viewership numbers for the Men's and Women's Division I Basketball Championships show a mixed basket of results -- nothing but net for the women but some good news and bad on the men's side.

The April 6 women's championship game between Connecticut and Tennessee had an average rating of 4.3, not only a record for the women's championship game but also the highest-rated basketball telecast ever -- men's or women's -- for ESPN or ESPN2. That includes more than 6,000 games over a span of 25 years.

Some local viewership figures for the women's tournament were huge. At the high point of the championship game, the women's final attracted an audience share of 50 (36.3 rating) in the Hartford, Connecticut, market. That compared favorably with the peak share of 54 registered the previous night for the Hartford market for the men's final between Connecticut and Georgia Tech.

In all, the Connecticut-Tennessee game averaged 3,801,000 households, surpassing the previous women's record of 3,487,000 set in 2002 when Connecticut defeated Oklahoma for the first of three consecutive national titles.

This year's rating was up 23 percent (4.3 vs. 3.5), but that spike may be an anomaly since 2003 ratings may have been depressed by the first days of the war in Iraq. The 2004 game averaged 5,583,000 viewers age 2 and older, an increase of 28 percent over 2003's 4,369,000.

Whether it was an anomaly or not, ESPN spokesperson Josh Krulewitz said that 2004 marked a banner year for women's basketball on ESPN.

"This was a great year for us across the board for college basketball," he said. "Our regular season was up, championship week was up and the entire tournament was up, culminating with the record-setting championship game."

Krulewitz said that ESPN's coverage was enhanced this year, especially in the early rounds, to create excitement and momentum leading to the Women's Final Four.

"And the longstanding UConn-Tennessee rivalry made for great drama in the end," he said. "All of those factors led to an unprecedented viewer response."

Not only were the ratings high for the championship game (it was the No. 2-rated cable program for the week of April 5-11, trailing only the April 11 episode of "The Sopranos"), viewership was good throughout the tournament. The Women's Final Four was the most-viewed and highest-rated in ESPN history, as was the tournament in general.

The Women's Final Four averaged 2,990,000 households and a 3.4 rating while the overall tournament, aired exclusively on ESPN and ESPN2, averaged 1,300,000 households and a 1.5 rating. For the complete tournament on ESPN, households were up 42 percent over 2003 while ratings increased 36 percent. The increases were even more notable on ESPN2 where households were up 77 percent and ratings 67 percent.

"The 2004 NCAA women's tournament is a tremendous success story for ESPN and the NCAA," said Len DeLuca, ESPN senior vice-president, programming strategy. "The record audience numbers are a reflection of our plan to capture the story lines in the first week and then provide every game nationally from the Sweet 16 to the Final Four. Our presentation was unmatched in the history of the NCAA tournaments. The NCAA gave us great theatre, and we are so pleased our fans responded so positively."

There is no disputing the quality of the games leading to the final. Only one of the seven games in the regional finals or Final Four was determined by more than 10 points, and three of Tennessee's last four games (Baylor, Stanford and LSU) were decided by two points with less than two seconds remaining.

Krulewitz said that the ESPN approach permitted the network to capitalize on the excitement.

"Our early round approach gives people the best of all worlds," he said. "Most of the nation receives the 'best of the best' action as we use a whiparound approach to showcase the most exciting game at any given time. We supplement that whiparound by providing the game of local interest to the markets of the competing teams. On top of that, fans who want more can get all the games in their entirety through ESPN Full Court. That is the model that works for us and for fans."

Men's championship

As for the men, the news was not as good, although it wasn't all bad.

First, the bad news. The rating for the championship game between Connecticut and Georgia Tech was 11.0, which is the lowest ever for the title game. The previous low was 12.6, set last year when Syracuse defeated Kansas.

Viewership was almost certainly reduced as Connecticut raced to a 15-point halftime lead and expanded it to as much as 25 points early in the second half.

"This is probably a floor for the championship game because I doubt down the road we'll get a game that is just that non-competitive," said Mike Aresco, senior vice-president of programming for CBS Sports. "You can't obligate people to watch when a game is that non-competitive when you have so many options. I'm very confident that with a decent game, we'll rebound next year."

To illustrate the point, Aresco noted that only three championship games over the last 15 years have been non-competitive, each leading to a ratings dip. In each case, ratings rebounded the next year when the games were close.

Despite the lack of suspense in the championship game, ratings for the tournament in general were up for every segment but one.

Regional semis

(Thursday) 6.7 6.3 -6%

Regional semis

(Friday) 6.0 5.2 -15%

Regional final

(Saturday) 6.1 6.2 -1%

Regional final

The overall tournament rating was 6.2, up 24 percent from last year.

In addition, the ratings for the two national semifinal games were relatively high, especially compared to the rating for the final. The opener between Oklahoma State and Georgia Tech had a rating of 8.3 while the second game, between Duke and Connecticut, had a 10.5 rating -- within 0.5 of a point of the title game. It was the first time that a semifinal game had come so close to having a larger television audience than the national title matchup.

Aresco said that the network is willing to consider different approaches that could improve viewership for the final game. Among them is the possibility of moving the pregame show to 8:30 p.m. ET and the tipoff to 9 p.m. (rather than the current 9 and 9:22).

"We are looking at it," Aresco said. "We're going to run the numbers and see what we think the estimates are and then talk to the men's committee about it this summer."

Aresco noted, however, that CBS did go with an earlier time in the '90s, and ratings fell as a result. He acknowledged that the 9:22 start makes it "a little late in the East," but he said the time works well for the Midwest and allows West Coast viewers an opportunity to see more of the game.

Beth Rosenberg contributed to this story.