This year's NCAA Tournament has felt vastly different than those in recent years. College basketball fans have become accustomed to upsets throughout the tournament and watching Cinderella teams make deep runs toward a national championship. That wound up not being the case this time around.
Only one double-digit seed, No. 10 Arkansas, made it past the first weekend of the tournament, and their run ended in the Sweet 16. The Elite Eight consisted of all four No. 1 seeds and three No. 2 seeds. The only team non-No. 2 seed that made the Elite 8 was No. 3-seeded Texas Tech. The Final Four wound up consisting of only No. 1 seeds for the first time in over a decade and just the second time ever.
The lack of parity in this year's tournament has been at the center of many complaints college basketball fans have had, bemoaning the death of the spirit of March Madness. But the TV ratings from the Final Four would suggest that the best four teams advancing was in fact the best thing that could've happened in the tournament.
Final Four scores 15.3 million viewers on CBS, the most-watched since 2017.
— March Madness Men’s Basketball TV (@MM_MBB_TV) April 6, 2025
Coverage peaked with 20.4 million viewers.
*Numbers expected to increase when Final data is available on Tuesday pic.twitter.com/sri6P5REyi
Final Four ratings prove college basketball fans don't really care about Cinderellas
When they happen, upsets are incredibly fun. I mean, it is objectively fantastic when we see No. 15 and No. 16 seeds upset some of the best programs in the country on the national stage. With that being said, though, these teams are ranked lower for a reason: They objectively are not as good at basketball as the higher-seeded teams.
So it comes as no surprise to see that college basketball fans are flocking to their televisions at a rate we haven't seen in nearly a decade when the best teams in the country are going head-to-head with a National Championship on the line. Upsets are fun bracket-busters, but how many people seriously want to see a No. 10 seed face off against a No. 5 seed in the Final Four?
The Auburn Tigers looked to be national championship-bound before the Florida Gators stormed back and stole a win on Saturday. That game wound up being decided in the final minutes with a couple of the best teams in the country trading blows. The matchup between the Duke Blue Devils and Houston Cougars wound up being even better thanks to Houston's heroic comeback win. That game wasn't decided until the final second ticked off the clock.
One game between some of the best teams in any given sport with the season on the line will always draw tons of eyeballs. College basketball proved to be no exception. The national championship game should be even better this season knowing that arguably the two best teams in the country will be facing off.