Sweet 16 Schedule
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Not really. Prime Time on the East and Pacific is 8-11 PM instead of the 7-10 PM that we are used in the Central and Mountain times. I bet CBS has it set up to maximize viewership in ways that we don’t know and the NCAA might have a say on it as well…they always do.
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@JayHawkFanToo Oregon (west coast team) will be tipping off at 4pm local time. That’s not maximizing viewership. Flipping tip iffs and having KU tip a 6pm local time and then having Oregon tip a 6pm local time is maximizing viewership.
How much would we be bitching if KU had a 4pm local tip off in the Sweet 16? If I’m an Oregon fan, I’m pretty pissed off about that tip time because if I work a normal 9-5, I’m missing most of that game.
The NCAA/CBS flat out screwed up the tip times for the Midwest region.
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Do you think CBS would purposefully sabotage its own ratings? Keep in mind the order of the games is predefined well ahead of time by the NCAA and CBS might not have had a choice. Networks are in the business of maximizing viewership and they probably know a thing or two we don’t know…and Dan Rather is not around to walk out if games go long…the old timers in the Forum will know what I am talking about.
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@JayHawkFanToo You’re right, the tip times are determined well in advance. What’s not determined well in advance is which game fills which time slot. All we knew in advance was KU would play on Thursday after they beat MSU. We didn’t find out until after every Round of 32 game had concluded that KU was in the late time slot on CBS.
Since you’re so deadset on that NCAA knows what they’re doing (I call BS on that by the way), tell me how Oregon tipping off at 4pm is maximizing West Coast viewership?
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Please read my post. I did not say the NCAA knows what it is doing, most of the time it does not. I DID say CBS is in the business of maximizing viewership but they might not have had a choice as the schedule is mandated by the NCAA. OTOH, maybe they have information that they have a larger viewership in the East and Midwest than the do on the West Coast. I certainly do not claim to know more than CBS about maximizing viewership so it would be ridiculous for me to tell them they are wrong.
Maybe it is a petro-shoe conspiracy.
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@JayHawkFanToo CBS has no say in which games they broadcast at this point. All they have is the time slot blocked out and the NCAA determines which game goes in which time slot. Go look at the other 3 regions and there are two inconsistencies with the Mid West. One is that UCLA and Arizona are in the late time slots and the highest seeded team left in the other 3 regions all play in the early game to maximize rest time.
I will just about guarantee that the Oregon/Michigan game is going to be the lowest rated of the 4 Sweet 16 games on CBS because of the 4pm West Coast tip time. No matter what, there’s going to be an EST team tipping at 9:30pm on Thursday, but flipping those two games puts KU at a 6pm local tip which isn’t a problem for most fans, and would put Oregon at a 6:30 local tip which again, maximizes West Coast viewership. Instead, you have 1/4 of your viewing market that will miss the majority of a game because of a 4pm local tip, and another big chunk of the viewership that will likely be asleep before the end of the second game. Tell me how the current tip times maximizes viewership instead of hurting viewership and therefore hurting the bottom line because companies can point to the crappy ratings that are getting ready to happen and say we’re not paying full price for a Sweet 16 advertising slot on Thursday because your ratings were crap.
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@Crimsonorblue22 Alex English. Saw him play a couple times while stationed in Denver. Was a heck of a player in the '80’s.
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@JayHawkFanToo Poor Alan. But how can you not notice those things? What’s a guy to do?
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I am sure CBS determined what was the schedule that would minimize audience and went with it…enthusiastically.
If you have an issue with CBS, then take it up with them. Here is where you can contact them. I am sure they will be happy to hear how you school them in TV scheduling and marketing.
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In this day in age nothing much short of walking away…
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CBS reseeded all the teams and has Gonzaga as #1 claiming they only lost 1 game…I want to see WVU spank them silly and show them for the overrated team they are. KU was the overall #2l seed and considering the first two wins, there is no doubt KU should be #1.
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@Blown I was thinknig the same thing when I watched the post game after the UC Davis Game like come on man these guys just lost and you’re asking the dumbest questions possible.
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@Blown That suit is god awful. A man with that kind of money ought to be able to afford a few nice tailored suits. Every man should own a few tailored suits in fact.
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@JayHawkFanToo The writer, Norlander, has picked KU in his bracket to win the title. Seedings are based on records, metrics, etc and there is no doubt Ganzaga has a strong claim. No heartburn here, or need to feel dissed as (horrors!) his #2 seed.
FYI, your link is actually to a Shiver slideshow of the CBS article. The CBS link on the 1st one, SC, has it all on one page and is easier to read.
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@BeddieKU23 I’m taking the following:
- Oregon
*KU
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West Virginia
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Arizona
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Butler
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Kentucky
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Baylor
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Florida
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Ok, one last poke at Duke while it’s fresh…
Nation Thrilled Grayson Allen Returned To Duke For One More Crushing NCAA Loss
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According to 538, KU is currently the most likely team to make the final four at 53%. Found that interesting. Gonzaga 46%, UK 40%. Unsurprisingly, Florida is the lowest percentage of the favourite in any region at 34%.
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ESPN has re-seeded the sweet 16 with KU #1. Another site was the same (not CBS apparently) but I can’t remember which.
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I thought that picture of Frank was really MC Hammer.
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Tip times are determined to put the #1 seeds in opposite time slots each night.
For Thursday, that means that the West and Midwest #1’s were always going to be opposite each other. Could they have flipped it and put Gonzaga on late? Sure, but given that the Zags play WVU, that means that WVU’s viewers would be tuning in for a game tipping at 11 pm local time. Unfortunately, because the bulk of tournament teams are in the Eastern and Central time zones, that makes working the TV schedule out pretty brutal because you don’t have enough west coast teams.
They compensate by having the West Region tipping 30 minutes later than the Midwest.
Same thing takes place on Friday. UNC plays early, and what would have been Villanova’s spot plays late. They can do that because the two marquee matchups on Friday are both in the South region, with the premier matchup being that UK-UCLA rematch. You also notice that what is thought of as the premier matchup gets the 9:39 time slot both nights.
Really, it’s a compliment to KU that they get the late CBS slot. That means it’s the best game of the night. Had Louisville beaten Michigan, they probably flip the slots to have that Oregon-Louisville game in the 9:39 spot. So really, if you want to blame anyone for this scheduling, blame Louisville.
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@justanotherfan I think there wouldn’t be any games tipping near 11 pm local time on the east coast. 10PM would be about the latest. Good information though. As some have pointed out, what a challenge to maximize viewership and appease fans.
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Trying to get the first game tipping after 7 in the Central time zone makes that near impossible. They would have to tip region 1, game 1 at 5:45 Central, followed by region 2, game 1 at 6:15 Central. That would let them tip region 1, game 2 at 8:15 and region 2, game 2 at 8:45.
But again, that makes that first game really early, especially on the west coast. The goal is to have game 1 of both regions wrapping in prime time, and the second games both tipping in prime time (hoping that people will get pulled in to watch the entire second game since its the marquee matchup of the night).
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I’m perhaps in the minority, but Sweet 16 nights – Thursday/Friday – seem to be the perfect evenings of basketball.
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My only gripe with the late start Thursday is having to be up roughly 4 hrs for work after the game ends. And throw in adrenaline from the game and I’m looking at even less sleep but a KU win will make all of that lack of sleep even better!
Otherwise don’t have any issue this has been the way for many years. Maybe we were usually playing on a Friday and it mattered less because generally more people have the weekend off…
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For me it’s a Friday tipoff - at 3 a.m.
We are still DST here, otherwise it would be 4.
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I do not agree. Villanova was the overall #1 seed followed by KU at #2; Gonzaga was the overall #4 seed. Gonzaga beat S. Dakota St., a #16 seed with a 18-16 record by 20 points in the first round, the same margin KU beat the much higher ranked Michigan State in the second round. Gonzaga had to fight hard to beat a pedestrian Northwest team by 6 points.
Gonzaga struggled in its second game while KU dominated both of its games. I am thinking WVU will expose Gonzaga whose record is built on smoke and mirrors and a weak conference.
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@JayHawkFanToo Bingo. Gonzaga is not going to know what hit them.
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@JayHawkFanToo I am not sure why you care so much what one guy at CBS wrote. He specifically said he was not basing it at all on the original NCAA seeding and was weighing the regular season into it. It is an arguably defensible position. Your position is also an arguably defensible position. People can differ on these things.
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@ParisHawk You mean, still not DST? Still oh-dark o’clock! But no doubt there are hundreds of bistros and cafes showing American bb in the middle of the night!
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@StLJhawk Much as I don’t like Allen, he does have one more NCAA championship than our guys do, so to avoid jinxes I am not casting any “Ha Ha’s” at him yet.
If we are hung over from celebrating two weeks from now, I will come back and retract my post, and proceed to unleash a big Bronx cheer at him!
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@justanotherfan I like blaming Louisville, and for last year, too!
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I did not say I cared much about who is number 1, I simply disagreed with his premise that Gonzaga is #1. The NCAA apparently agrees with me since it ranked KU ahead of Gonzaga at the start of the tournament and KU has played much better than Gonzaga since then.
Reseeding is typically done to reflect how the teams left are playing since the start of the tournament. If you are going to use the entire season…why reseed? Isn’t this what the original seeding did?
Using the entire body of work should actually work against Gonzaga since it played in the weakest conference of any of the teams in the Sweet 16 and it is the only team left while the Big 12 has 3 teams.
We will find out soon enough how good Gonzaga is…
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@JayHawkFanToo Please let me apologize. I misunderstood. I honestly thought Norlander has a right to have his own opinion about Gonzaga, and I did not realize that it is wrong for him to think of Gonzaga now as the #1 seed.
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@JayHawkFanToo Maybe you’ll be pleased with this. I know I am after seeing who one of his other #1 seeds is!
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No need to apologize (even sarcastically), we are in place where we all have opinions of our own and they don’t always agree. Again, Norlander has the right to his opinion and I have the right to mine and I also have the rights, as does everybody else, to disagree with his opinion. We are all big boys and we can state our cases, form our opinions and draw our own conclusions.
Interesting that Norlander would seed Gonzaga #1 when he is picking Arizona to beat them and he is picking KU to win the Tournament…ironic, isn’t it?
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Not that I frequent ESPN all that much anymore, but when I clicked on the NCAA tab today what I saw was:
“From Hill to Laettner, 25 years later” and
“How did it all go wrong for Duke?”
Cool, ESPN. Now I remember why I stopped visiting your site.
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Another pick for KU.
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@KirkIsMyHinrich I noticed that when I posted my link a few lines above here.
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