Why Monday Night?

[mr. synellinden]

Does it make much sense that the NCAA championship game is on a Monday night? Why not push things back a day or two and make it Thursday night - Saturday night or even better Friday night - Sunday night. Then the championship game would have more of a Super Bowl Sunday kind of a feel, rather than an oh, by the way, pre-season MNF game feel that competes with baseball's opening day. Also, it would be a seamless transition from college hoops into MLB.

Also, it would make it much easier to "make a weekend" out of going to the final four. The way it is now, you pretty much have to write of Monday and Tuesday if you want to go.

I guess it's not much different than having the BCS championship game mid-week, but that doesn't seem right to me either. IMO, if you have the choice, championship games should be played on the weekend.

[bjornolf]

Can't argue with you there, but it's been like that forever. Habit, I guess.

[allenmurray]

2008 Super Bowl - 95 million viewers

2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship game - 19.5 million viewers.

College Basketball still ins't a national event in the way the Super Bowl is. It simply doesn't have the draw needed to put it on in what would otherwise be a lousy time block. Plus, NFL fans are used to sunday being a big day - College basketball fans are not.

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/01/18...-ratings/11044

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/03/31...-ratings/15545

[gvtucker]

Can't argue with you there, but it's been like that forever. Habit, I guess.

Man, I guess I'm older than forever then.

I don't know when they changed it, but I remember the 1971 Final Four in the Houston Astrodome ended on a Saturday. And I remember that Marquette won the 1977 Final Four over UNC on a Monday night in Atlanta. So the shift happened somewhere in between.

[mr. synellinden]

2008 Super Bowl - 95 million viewers

2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship game - 19.5 million viewers.

College Basketball still ins't a national event in the way the Super Bowl is. It simply doesn't have the draw needed to put it on in what would otherwise be a lousy time block. Plus, NFL fans are used to sunday being a big day - College basketball fans are not.

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/01/18...-ratings/11044

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/03/31...-ratings/15545

Then why have the regional finals and the Final Four on the weekend? By your logic, those games should be during lousy time blocks also.

[hurleyfor3]

It makes more sense to have the semifinal games during the weekend than the championship game. More teams playing, more interested fanbases, more time to program two games and less total class/work is missed for the two losing teams and their fanbases.

For teevee, there is the added issue that the opportunity cost of putting basketball on Saturday night is not that great compared to Thursday (audiences are larger on weeknights). And the Monday championship game takes up only half of primetime.

[allenmurray]

Then why have the regional finals and the Final Four on the weekend? By your logic, those games should be during lousy time blocks also.

It is not "my logic" - just look at the numbers. If I had my way it would be on at 7:00 so my kids could watch it with me. You tried to equate the two events, but five times as many people watch the super bowl as the NCAA championship.

My guess is that basketball fans watch the NCAA championship and the network figures that they will tune in no matter when. But the Super Bowl has become more of a social event, with fans and non-fans alike watching. Some watch for the commericals, some watch for the excuse to have a party, and some watch for the football. If the network wasn't time sensitive they would lose the first two groups. The NCAA championship game hasn't reached the status of social event yet. It is still a sporting event.

[Bob Green]

Man, I guess I'm older than forever then.

I don't know when they changed it, but I remember the 1971 Final Four in the Houston Astrodome ended on a Saturday. And I remember that Marquette won the 1977 Final Four over UNC on a Monday night in Atlanta. So the shift happened somewhere in between.

I'm also older than forever. The Championship Game was moved to Monday night in 1973. In the first Monday night game, Bill Walton scored 44 points as UCLA defeated Memphis State.

[mr. synellinden]

It is not "my logic" - just look at the numbers. If I had my way it would be on at 7:00 so my kids could watch it with me. You tried to equate the two events, but five times as many people watch the super bowl as the NCAA championship.

My guess is that basketball fans watch the NCAA championship and the network figures that they will tune in no matter when. But the Super Bowl has become more of a social event, with fans and non-fans alike watching. Some watch for the commericals, some watch for the excuse to have a party, and some watch for the football. If the network wasn't time sensitive they would lose the first two groups. The NCAA championship game hasn't reached the status of social event yet. It is still a sporting event.

But so are the finals of all the major golf and tennis tournaments (sports not social) and those are played on Sundays. I didn't mean to equate the NCAA championship with the Super Bowl in terms of an event - no sporting event compares - but it would seem that more people would watch on a Satuday or Sunday evening than Monday night. I do mean to equate it with with other sports championship events which are typically on weekends -- obviously "series" championships are going to be played all week. Now don't get me started on start times - I am with you on that.

[Devil in the Blue Dress]

But so are the finals of all the major golf and tennis tournaments (sports not social) and those are played on Sundays. I didn't mean to equate the NCAA championship with the Super Bowl in terms of an event - no sporting event compares - but it would seem that more people would watch on a Satuday or Sunday evening than Monday night. I do mean to equate it with with other sports championship events which are typically on weekends -- obviously "series" championships are going to be played all week. Now don't get me started on start times - I am with you on that.

The late start times accommodate those on the left coast. If the championship game were on the weekend, perhaps it would be less important to schedule so late. You can be sure that if the networks discover a way to increase their profits with a different broadcast time, the NCAA would go along with a change.

[Spret42]

They do it so hyperactive young boys whose fathers were total sticklers for their 9 o'clock bedtimes were never able to watch a championship game live until they were like 16 years old and therefore ended up bitter with no real hope for the future saw the world as an evil place where nothing good every happened and..........

[Billy Dat]

I love Monday night...it's our thing...unique...mention the first Monday in April to any sports fan and they know what you're talking about!

[allenmurray]

Due to travel demands they probably want to keep an x and x + 2 schedule. Saturday/Monday might be better than Friday/Sunday or Thursday/Saturday. It might not be so much the issue of Monday night, but the combination of Saturday/Monday being the best combination.

[Exiled_Devil]

I've wondered much the same, except that I wonder "why the heck don't they move MLB opening day until after Basketball is over." Why do they ruin the best sporting event of the year with the snore of a beginning to the snore of a sport?

[GrayHare]

The way it is now, you pretty much have to write of Monday and Tuesday if you want to go.

It's even more apparent on the women's side that the schedule is dictated by TV rather than by the fans. The tournament brackets are announced on selection Monday, so you have to wait a day longer to find out where you're going and have a day less to get there. Half of the sub-regionals, half of the regionals, and the final four are played on a Sunday/Tuesday schedule. So if you want to go, you have to write off Monday, Tuesday, AND Wednesday.

Every year, I have to remind myself that ESPN coverage is good for the sport.

[captmojo]

If I had my way it would be on at 7:00...

My guess is that basketball fans watch the NCAA championship and the network figures that they will tune in no matter when.

...and I would agree with you whole-heartedly

I love operating my "day after" on four hours sleep.

[bjornolf]

Isn't Friday night kind of a dead night for TV anyway? By your argument, the college fans will watch it anyway. There's not TOO much good TV on Sunday nights. So, why not a Friday/Sunday? Makes a lot more sense to me. If Saturday/Monday is so great, why aren't any of the earlier rounds set up that way? I'd bet money you'd get more viewership with a Sunday night game. I'm sure it wouldn't be Super Bowl numbers, but I bet it would nearly double what they're getting Monday night. Monday night you get ONLY the hardcore fans of college basketball plus the fans or haters of the two teams playing. Sunday evening (say 6:00pm tip-off EDT) you'd get a decent viewership from the other groups of basketball fans and general sports fans too. ALIMHO. I, for one, won't watch the championship unless I have a rooting interest. If it were on a Sunday evening instead of Monday night, I'd watch it as long as it was a game 90% of the time. I WILL be watching tonight, cause I'm gonna be pulling for the Spartans. Go Green!

[Atlanta Duke]

Due to travel demands they probably want to keep an x and x + 2 schedule. Saturday/Monday might be better than Friday/Sunday or Thursday/Saturday. It might not be so much the issue of Monday night, but the combination of Saturday/Monday being the best combination.

IMO the schedule is an artifact of the Paleozoic Age of TV programming in the late 1960s - early 1970s when networks ruled the earth and I was watching way too much TV.

Prior to NBC first getting involved with the tournament in 1969, the Final Four had the national semis on Friday night and the championship on Saturday night (similar to the ACC tournament being all day Thursday/Friday night/Saturday night until around 1981) - getting the games depended on who picked up a syndicated broadcast in your city.

When NBC started out, it presumably wanted to build some viewing interest prior to the championship game so we first initially received from NBC two of the 4 regional championship games on Saturday afternoon (my recollection is we did not get all 4 regional games on Saturday & Sunday until 1976), one of two national semis on Thursday night (in those pre-seeding days the East Coast received East v. "Mideast"), and a Saturday afternoon championship - Friday night to Saturday afternoon might have been too tight a turnaround for the teams or maybe NBC had better programming on Friday night in 1969.

When NBC finally decided to broadcast both national semis in 1973 and those of us east of the Mississippi got to see UCLA sometime prior to its annual national championship game, college ball was too much of niche sport for the audiences the nets sought in those days, so the NCAA was not going to get primetime on 2 nights of the week and certainly not an entire night of college ball for the national semis. So by default that left Saturday or Sunday afternoon for the national semis and Saturday won out. You theoretically could then have played the national championship on Sunday, but at that time Sunday night was the biggest audience night of the week and my recollection is that nobody programmed sports on Sunday nights in the 1970s.

So it is my guess we carry on with that schedule due to long ago and far away programming decisions.

[Truth]

And I always thought the game was held on Monday night to contain the collateral damage inflicted on the winning school's campus...




(Or the losing school if it were Maryland.)

[KyDevilinIL]

I think the national semifinal games – the actual Final Four – is the primary draw for the general public at this point in the tournament, so those games are played Saturday for bars and parties and whatnot. The title game is fairly anticlimactic, IMO, especially if you have no rooting interest, so I don't think the TV folks are to concerned with finding a better slot for the game. I kinda like the Monday title game, anyway. It's all I've ever known.

The NCAAT begins with wide national interest on the first Thursday and Friday because of office pools, then interest wanes considerably over the next two weekends. By tonight, only the deeply interested remain.