NCAA semis on ESPN each hit seven figures

Penn State-Nebraska all-Big Ten showdown lured 1.2 million viewers, most in history for a Final 4 volleyball match

NCAA women's volleyball continued to be a big winner on TV. The marathon Final 4 match between Penn State and Nebraska that ended after midnight in the Eastern time zone on Friday averaged 1.2 million viewers on ESPN, the most ever for a national semifinal (see the accompanying social-media post from ESPN PR).

The first NCAA semifinal televised by ESPN on Thursday night pitting Louisville and Pitt had a viewership of 1.02 million, according to Nielsen. That is a strong number when neither the rabid Nebraska nor Wisconsin fan bases were directly involved and the match began at 6:30 p.m. Eastern, outside of prime time.

An overall ratings growth of 4% might not seem to be all that exciting, but it should be. Cable TV is in an insidious downward spiral, losing subscribers like a mangy dog sheds hair. Any TV property that shows viewership gains in the cord-cutting era is a gold mine. Keep in mind, too, that the volleyball matches went head-to-head with the Thursday night NFL game on Amazon Prime (the viewership of which hasn't yet been reported).

The folks who run TV also likely will take interest in the substantial 51% gain in the hard-to-reach 18-34 age group demonstrated by the NCAA semifinals. Young people typically don't care about sports on traditional linear TV, but women's volleyball has bucked that trend.

We had seen far bigger overall growth year-over-year in 2023 (49% for the early Nebraska-Pitt semifinal and 54% for Texas-Wisconsin that followed), but NCAA women's volleyball has become a more mature product, so routinely projecting huge gains is unrealistic.

Also worth noting is that the crowd at the massive publicly owned KFC Yum! Center in downtown Louisville, announced at 21,726, broke the record for the national semifinals of 19,598 set last year in Tampa's Amalie Arena.

Expect another huge TV audience and sold-out Yum! Center on Sunday afternoon when Penn State and Louisville clash, with traditional over-the-air ABC covering the action, starting at 2 p.m. Central. Whether the record viewership of 1.691 million set by the 2023 NCAA final on ABC, the first aired on a broadcast platform, will be broken seems problematic without the highly invested Nebraska Cornhuskers’ fan base in the mix. Penn State-Louisville will be piggybacked on the streaming ESPN+ subscription service.