John Kosner’s Comments on NCAA Championship TV Start Times were Featured in Ben Koo’s Column in Awful Announcing

Original Article: Awful Announcing, by Ben Koo, April 9th, 2024

The madness has ended for both the men and especially the women. This year’s tournaments have been a major success in terms of interest and television ratings.

But as much as positivity surrounded both tournaments this year, there was one issue that fans and sports media folks took issue with—the tipoff times of both championship games. Below we look at the fan feedback and what realistically could change, if anything.

Women’s Championship Game at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday

In August 2022, The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch reported that the women’s championship game would be moving from its traditional home of ESPN to the more broadly distributed ABC for the final two years of the existing contract. Deitsch had long advocated for that move and ESPN President of Content, Burke Magnus, signaled that while they could only commit to 2023 and 2024 on ABC, the plan was for the game to stay on ABC should ESPN renew the contract, which they indeed did, and is already looking like a money-printing steal for ESPN.

While the move to ABC has been good from a visibility standpoint, the game slid back from the 8 p.m. ET tipoff time it held the year before on ESPN to 3 p.m. ET. That five-hour change had some feeling like it was not optimally scheduled. Our poll, which got 4,000 responses, showed that fans thought 3 p.m. ET was too early on Sunday although the old 8 p.m. ET tipoff was seen as too late. Nearly 80% of the poll respondents seemed to like the idea of a tipoff time between 4-8 p.m. ET.

Although most folks found the tipoff time too early, some found it just right.

Many people responding to our poll, as well as general fodder on X/Twitter, cited that the 3 p.m. tipoff time was not ideal due to activities including day drinking, youth sports, errands, family events, and church. 6 p.m. seemed to be the sweet spot many were looking for.

In defense of the 3 p.m. tipoff time, Deitsch made the point that the NFL does quite well in the afternoon.

While 8 p.m. or later only got 6.5% of the votes in our poll, many people noted that NBC’s Sunday Night Football kicks off after 8 p.m. and is the highest-rated regular season sporting event on a week-to-week basis. That said, that tipoff time would require ABC to nix their primetime lineup, something networks are very hesitant to do. Also, is the 8:20 ET kickoff of Sunday Night Football really optimal or simply done because of the late afternoon window before it?

John Kosner, a former ESPN executive, cites that the NFL starts its biggest post-season games at 6:30 p.m. ET which is probably a pretty definitive clue of what data signals is the most ideal time to start a game. That said, NFL games take three hours or more, whereas college basketball games take about two hours. So a 6:30 ET kickoff time for an NFL playoff game is really a 6:30-10 p.m. ET window whereas a college basketball game is more likely to go from 6:30-8:45 p.m. ET.

Ultimately, as Sports Media Watch referenced in the posts above and below, the 3 p.m. ET tipoff is more of a byproduct of ABC not wanting to disrupt its primetime lineup, something we saw as the post-game show ended with no warning on ABC (it continued on ESPN).

Will that be the case moving forward? Given how massive the ratings were and the fact that the clunky transition was into paid programming instead of their primetime lineup, something Sports Media Watch labeled as “borderline incompetence,” it seems likely some change will take place. With “America’s Funniest Home Videos” (yes, still a thing) airing at 7 p.m. ET, a tipoff pushed back to the 4-4;30 window would allow ABC to capitalize on the millions watching versus dumping them into paid programming.

Another option is to go even later and have ABC take a break from their normal primetime schedule which would currently be “America’s Funniest Home Videos” and then “American Idol,” although I think moving the latter is very unlikely. Ultimately, ABC and ESPN now have ratings data that is significantly more compelling. You’d think it helps make the case that a 3 p.m. ET tipoff leading to paid programming does nobody any good. We’ll have to wait and see what their plan is for 2025, given that next year’s game will be the first in ESPN’s new deal with the NCAA.

Men’s Championship Game at 9:20 ET on Monday

As seen below, the late tipoff time of the men’s championship game is nothing new.

But once again, the topic of the tipoff time drew the same commentary it does every year.

The first thing to consider here is that a college basketball game tipping off at 9:20 ET will essentially end at the same time that NBC’s Sunday Night Football ends (11:30-ish) although the game starts a full hour later. So while the game starts later than most big time games we’re used to, it ends at about the same time.

The other thing to consider is that Monday is a workday and the networks have to juggle the fact that a game starting sometime around 8 p.m. ET will not allow viewers on the West Coast much time to travel back from work.  Given how much of the West Coast population lives around areas with known difficult commutes (Bay Area, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Seattle, etc.), networks are more or less juggling the question “Do we gain more viewers on the West Coast by giving them added time to get back home?” versus “how many viewers are we losing on the East Coast by pushing this game later in the night?”

Given how the game has never really moved off of its 9:00-9:20 tipoff time for decades, the data seems to support the fact that despite rankling fans on the East Coast, the 9:20 ET tipoff time is pretty optimal. Keep in mind Nielsen provides ratings data for the largest markets in the U.S., so they can see where ratings will be impacted by start times, allowing networks to potentially adjust accordingly.

While the Eastern time zone has ~47% of the country’s population, the Pacific time zone has just under 17%. So while more people are annoyed on the East Coast and perhaps that could be factored in more, the networks seem to be saying ‘Yes they are annoyed on the East Coast, but they still watch, whereas West Coast viewers in many cases will be unable to watch at all if the game was earlier.’

The thinking is that X amount of viewers, with Y amount of them being annoyed, is better than having fewer viewers in total, even though those watching might be happier overall.

That’s a long way of saying if you’re someone who finds the tipoff time too late for the men’s championship, you’ll likely have to move timezones, have a coffee, or just deal because it doesn’t seem like it will be changed anytime soon.