This year, the NCAA tournament's Elite Eight is populated exclusively by 1 through 3 seeds, there's no George Mason and no Davidson, no underdog that fought hard, beat the odds, and made it to the verge of national recognition. You could say that George Mason go lucky, the teams they fought through didn't exactly bring their A games, but Davidson game within 3 points of a Final Four birth playing against the eventual national champion, and the Jay Hawks played as well as they played all season.
For fans of the game who aren't fans of any particular team, this might make things a little less exciting. There is little chance of a gigantic upset that no one saw coming, and no big time team that is going to be one of the greatest of all time. But still, there should still enough to keep fans interested.
CBS Probably Shouldn't Worry
Ratings for the Final Four actually went down in 2006 when George Mason was in, down by nearly 6 million viewers from the previous year, when perenial powerhouse North Carolina was in the championship game. In fact, ratings always seem to rise when powerhouse teams are in the final four, and especially if they make it to the championship game.
The Championship games highest ratings ever were in 1979 when a Magic Johnson led Michigan State team faced off with Larry Bird's undefeated Indiana State, and the second highest rated game was in 1992, when Duke repeated as national champion. There is the old saying that America loves an underdog, but the television ratings don't seem to support that theory. But predicting the ratings for the final four is hardly an exact science, in 2004 when Duke and Connecticut both made it, the final four had it's lowest ratings in more than 30 years.
Match-ups Between Individual Players Often Draw Viewers
A Blake Griffin led Oklahoma team is squaring off with a Tyler Hansborough led North Carolina team in the elite eight, which is bound to draw fan interest. They are two of the best forwards to play college basketball in a long time, and they've never faced each other before. Now they're going to face each other on basketball's third biggest stage (the biggest is the championship game, and the second biggest is the Final Four).
The 1979 final was anticipated because it feature a match up between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, two players who everyone knew were going to be great pros. The Griffin/Hansborough match-up isn't quite the same, as it's in the elite eight and not the final, and everyone seems to agree that Griffin will be a great pro, but the vote isn't quite in yet on Hansborough, but i should be a widely-viewed game nonetheless.
Where Will This Tournament Rank Historically?
That's a question that's difficult to answer at this point., At the beginning of the season, North Carolina looked like they could go down in the history books as one of the greatest teams of all times, they went on to suffer ignoble defeats to the likes of Boston College and Maryland. Oklahoma and Connecticut looked like they could both be favorites to win it all, then UConn lost to Syracuse and Oklahoma fell to Oklahoma state in their respective conference tournaments.
Now it's pretty much anybody's Final Four, Missouri is tough enough to upset any of the number 1 seeds, Oklahoma has the best player in the country, North Carolina has the best team in the country, provided their point guard is healthy, UConn looks unbeatable, but only if they don't let themselves get taken out of their game. But in 1992, the Elite Eight match-up of Kentucky and Duke more or less decided which one of those teams would go down in history as one of the all-time greats. But at this point, no matter how the tournament ends up, it's unlikely that any of the last eight teams will be given that title.
