Women's NCAA championship in Minneapolis most-watched college basketball game on ESPN since 2008
More than 4.85 million people watched South Carolina defeat Connecticut in Sunday's NCAA women's basketball national championship game in Minneapolis.
According to ESPN's Flora Kelly, it's the most-watched college basketball game — men or women — on ESPN since 2008.
Worth noting, however, is that the Nielsen TV ratings show 4.465 million people watched the game, which ranked fifth in the past week among all cable network TV programs.
Either way, it's the biggest hit for a college hoops game on ESPN in nearly 15 years, and the most-watched women's national championship game since 2004, per ESPN.
It's an incredible statistic, especially since the Duke and North Carolina men, arguably the most storied rivalry in college sports history, played on ESPN on Saturday, March 5 in what was Hall of Fame coach Mike Kryzcewski's final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
It's unclear how many viewers Coach K's final home game against the Tar Heels garnered, but it obviously wasn't as popular as the women's title game.
It's a good bet that Minnesotans were watching in full force, not only because the Final Four was at Target Center, but because former Hopkins star Paige Bueckers was starring for UConn.
