foby
- Bonnaroo Land
Trip to the Balkans upcoming?
Illini Basketball
1m4tr
Cliffmas
That has to happen for sure. Would be cool for all of the US players to see what the Balkans are all about. And allow Underwood to do some scouting too.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
TV ratings from Big Ten games in the NCAA Tournament in order of viewers (in thousands).
18,282 for Michigan vs. UConn (National Championship on TBS)
14,293 for Michigan vs. Arizona (Final Four on TBS)
14,161 for Illinois vs. UConn (Final Four on TBS)
10,143 for Purdue vs. Arizona (Elite Eight on TBS)
8,532 for Purdue vs. Texas (Sweet Sixteen on CBS)
8,469 for Michigan State vs. Louisville (Second Round on CBS)
8,237 for Illinois vs. Iowa (Elite Eight on TBS)
7,493 for Michigan vs. Tennessee (Elite Eight on CBS)
7,337 for Michigan State vs. UConn (Sweet Sixteen on CBS)
6,833 for Purdue vs. Miami (FL) (Second Round on CBS)
6,250 for Michigan vs. Saint Louis (Second Round on CBS)
5,645 for Illinois vs. VCU (Second Round on CBS)
5,142 for Iowa vs. Florida (Second Round on TBS)
4,833 for Michigan vs. Alabama (Sweet Sixteen on TBS)
4,623 for Ohio State vs. TCU (First Round on CBS)
4,519 for Michigan vs. Howard (First Round on CBS)
4,232 for Iowa vs. Clemson (First Round on TNT)
3,979 for UCLA vs. UConn (Second Round on TNT)
3,769 for Nebraska vs. Vanderbilt (Second Round on TNT)
3,535 for Iowa vs. Nebraska (Sweet Sixteen on TBS)
3,281 for Illinois vs. Houston (Sweet Sixteen on TBS)
2,509 for UCLA vs. UCF (First Round on TBS)
2,460 for Illinois vs. Penn (First Round on TNT)
1,789 for Michigan State vs. North Dakota State (First Round on TNT)
1,508 for Wisconsin vs. High Point (First Round on TBS)
1,225 for Purdue vs. Queens (First Round on TruTV)
893 for Nebraska vs. Troy (First Round on TruTV)
And here are Illinois' games in chronological order of our journey.
First Round | 2,460 for Illinois vs. Penn (Thursday 3/19 at 8:25 pm on TNT)
Second Round | 5,645 for Illinois vs. VCU (Saturday 3/21 at 6:50 pm on CBS)
Sweet Sixteen | 3,281 for Illinois vs. Houston (Thursday 3/26 at 9:05 pm on TBS)
Elite Eight | 8,237 for Illinois vs. Iowa (Saturday 3/28 at 5:09 pm on TBS)
Final Four | 14,161 for Illinois vs. UConn (Saturday 4/4 at 5:09 pm on TBS)
A couple notes and observations!
1. Holy exposure! Never, ever underestimate the perception-defining value this exposure generates for our program. Millions of impressionable young fans watched Illinois on the brightest stage there is and likely heard the announcers mention multiple times how Illini fans took over Indy. This "payoff" is FAR more than some future star recruit growing up associating Illini Basketball with success ... it fundamentally shifts the subconscious narrative of the entire college basketball world to think of us as an elite program. That pays all sorts of hard-to-track dividends that elevate the status of the program over time, and it increases the size and reach of our fan base in future generation beyond just sports-loving alumni and local diehards ... and we need that!
2. On the note of exposure, here is some context. Our primetime matchup on FOX this year with Michigan was the most viewed college hoops game of that week, with 2.16 million viewers. Even higher up the ratings pecking order, the Illinois / OSU BTT Championship game in 2021 drew a very impressive 3.68 million viewers and even peaked at almost 6 million (IIRC) just before the Selection Show began as the game went into overtime. That was by far the highest viewed game of the season up to that point, and the BTT Championship almost always is due to being on CBS right before the Selection Show. Those ratings are handily beaten by a game as seemingly inconsequential as Iowa and Clemson playing in the NCAAT First Round on TNT, which drew 4.23 million! And yet 5.65 million tuned in to watch Illinois dispatch of VCU in the Second Round this year, 8.24 million tuned in to watch us punch our ticket to the Final Four vs. Iowa and 14.16 million had their eyes on the Illini as we took the court in Indianapolis for our first Final Four in 20+ years. This kind of exposure is just leagues and leagues above whatever huge regular season game from the past 7 years you felt was a "big stage." It's absolutely INCREDIBLE for the program to be showcased on stages like this.
3. It's also important to remember, however, that the channel and gametime matters. In general, I would say it's easiest to get a good rating on CBS, then TBS / TNT and lastly TruTV. Also, Ohio State / TCU was the very first game of the Tournament on CBS, with lots of casual fans tuning in because they were excited for the whole event to begin. That is an apples-to-oranges comparison with Illinois playing Penn in the last window of games for the night on a channel that generally gets worse ratings (TNT). I mean, I do not think the national appetite to watch Illinois play VCU in the Second Round (5.65 million) was actually stronger than to see Illinois play Houston in the Sweet Sixteen (3.28 million) ... the difference was the former was at 6:50 pm on a Saturday night on CBS, while the latter was at 9:05 pm on a Thursday night on TBS.
4. I do think the majority of viewers for any sporting event on a major network (i.e., not BTN or FS1) are often not fans of either team, and this certainly holds true even more for high profile NCAA Tournament games. With that said, obviously specific fan bases clearly drive ratings up, and I think the Big Ten is continuing to prove that it just simply has a lot more people cheering for one of its teams than any conference not named the SEC, and we likely beat them out for basketball, too. It obviously helps inflate the number that two Big Ten teams made the Final Four, as those ratings are going to dwarf the earlier rounds no matter what, and thus any conference with teams in the Final Four is going to have higher average ratings. However, even just eyeballing First and Second Round games (where specific fan bases likely make up a larger portion of viewers), Big Ten teams were outperforming a lot of the competition, even while often on "worse" channels.
The TL;DR is we just got to be on an incredible stage, and that is super valuable for our program. GO ILLINI!
18,282 for Michigan vs. UConn (National Championship on TBS)
14,293 for Michigan vs. Arizona (Final Four on TBS)
14,161 for Illinois vs. UConn (Final Four on TBS)
10,143 for Purdue vs. Arizona (Elite Eight on TBS)
8,532 for Purdue vs. Texas (Sweet Sixteen on CBS)
8,469 for Michigan State vs. Louisville (Second Round on CBS)
8,237 for Illinois vs. Iowa (Elite Eight on TBS)
7,493 for Michigan vs. Tennessee (Elite Eight on CBS)
7,337 for Michigan State vs. UConn (Sweet Sixteen on CBS)
6,833 for Purdue vs. Miami (FL) (Second Round on CBS)
6,250 for Michigan vs. Saint Louis (Second Round on CBS)
5,645 for Illinois vs. VCU (Second Round on CBS)
5,142 for Iowa vs. Florida (Second Round on TBS)
4,833 for Michigan vs. Alabama (Sweet Sixteen on TBS)
4,623 for Ohio State vs. TCU (First Round on CBS)
4,519 for Michigan vs. Howard (First Round on CBS)
4,232 for Iowa vs. Clemson (First Round on TNT)
3,979 for UCLA vs. UConn (Second Round on TNT)
3,769 for Nebraska vs. Vanderbilt (Second Round on TNT)
3,535 for Iowa vs. Nebraska (Sweet Sixteen on TBS)
3,281 for Illinois vs. Houston (Sweet Sixteen on TBS)
2,509 for UCLA vs. UCF (First Round on TBS)
2,460 for Illinois vs. Penn (First Round on TNT)
1,789 for Michigan State vs. North Dakota State (First Round on TNT)
1,508 for Wisconsin vs. High Point (First Round on TBS)
1,225 for Purdue vs. Queens (First Round on TruTV)
893 for Nebraska vs. Troy (First Round on TruTV)
And here are Illinois' games in chronological order of our journey.
First Round | 2,460 for Illinois vs. Penn (Thursday 3/19 at 8:25 pm on TNT)
Second Round | 5,645 for Illinois vs. VCU (Saturday 3/21 at 6:50 pm on CBS)
Sweet Sixteen | 3,281 for Illinois vs. Houston (Thursday 3/26 at 9:05 pm on TBS)
Elite Eight | 8,237 for Illinois vs. Iowa (Saturday 3/28 at 5:09 pm on TBS)
Final Four | 14,161 for Illinois vs. UConn (Saturday 4/4 at 5:09 pm on TBS)
A couple notes and observations!
1. Holy exposure! Never, ever underestimate the perception-defining value this exposure generates for our program. Millions of impressionable young fans watched Illinois on the brightest stage there is and likely heard the announcers mention multiple times how Illini fans took over Indy. This "payoff" is FAR more than some future star recruit growing up associating Illini Basketball with success ... it fundamentally shifts the subconscious narrative of the entire college basketball world to think of us as an elite program. That pays all sorts of hard-to-track dividends that elevate the status of the program over time, and it increases the size and reach of our fan base in future generation beyond just sports-loving alumni and local diehards ... and we need that!
2. On the note of exposure, here is some context. Our primetime matchup on FOX this year with Michigan was the most viewed college hoops game of that week, with 2.16 million viewers. Even higher up the ratings pecking order, the Illinois / OSU BTT Championship game in 2021 drew a very impressive 3.68 million viewers and even peaked at almost 6 million (IIRC) just before the Selection Show began as the game went into overtime. That was by far the highest viewed game of the season up to that point, and the BTT Championship almost always is due to being on CBS right before the Selection Show. Those ratings are handily beaten by a game as seemingly inconsequential as Iowa and Clemson playing in the NCAAT First Round on TNT, which drew 4.23 million! And yet 5.65 million tuned in to watch Illinois dispatch of VCU in the Second Round this year, 8.24 million tuned in to watch us punch our ticket to the Final Four vs. Iowa and 14.16 million had their eyes on the Illini as we took the court in Indianapolis for our first Final Four in 20+ years. This kind of exposure is just leagues and leagues above whatever huge regular season game from the past 7 years you felt was a "big stage." It's absolutely INCREDIBLE for the program to be showcased on stages like this.
3. It's also important to remember, however, that the channel and gametime matters. In general, I would say it's easiest to get a good rating on CBS, then TBS / TNT and lastly TruTV. Also, Ohio State / TCU was the very first game of the Tournament on CBS, with lots of casual fans tuning in because they were excited for the whole event to begin. That is an apples-to-oranges comparison with Illinois playing Penn in the last window of games for the night on a channel that generally gets worse ratings (TNT). I mean, I do not think the national appetite to watch Illinois play VCU in the Second Round (5.65 million) was actually stronger than to see Illinois play Houston in the Sweet Sixteen (3.28 million) ... the difference was the former was at 6:50 pm on a Saturday night on CBS, while the latter was at 9:05 pm on a Thursday night on TBS.
4. I do think the majority of viewers for any sporting event on a major network (i.e., not BTN or FS1) are often not fans of either team, and this certainly holds true even more for high profile NCAA Tournament games. With that said, obviously specific fan bases clearly drive ratings up, and I think the Big Ten is continuing to prove that it just simply has a lot more people cheering for one of its teams than any conference not named the SEC, and we likely beat them out for basketball, too. It obviously helps inflate the number that two Big Ten teams made the Final Four, as those ratings are going to dwarf the earlier rounds no matter what, and thus any conference with teams in the Final Four is going to have higher average ratings. However, even just eyeballing First and Second Round games (where specific fan bases likely make up a larger portion of viewers), Big Ten teams were outperforming a lot of the competition, even while often on "worse" channels.
The TL;DR is we just got to be on an incredible stage, and that is super valuable for our program. GO ILLINI!
GrayGhost77
- Centennial, CO
I feel like we could probably win a natty with Nikola Jokic on our team. C'mon Misko, make it happen.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Our Q rating in the basketball consciousness in general just went way, way up in the past month.
Wagler being a big star and under the NBA Draft microscope was a big part of that, but the Balkan kids and our orange zombie hordes of fans really connected with people too.
We're going to have the spotlight on us going into a new season to a bigger degree than we have since Dee was here.
DReq
Always Illini
- Central Illinois
I just don't want to see any Illini on the cover of SI. At least not until the National Championship pix go up.
TheFlyingIllini1317
- Chicago, IL
Fighter novels now for hoops not just fb or uniforms, lfg.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
That is a ridiculous amount of fundraising for a one-night event like this.
DJ Smirk may officially be my favorite Illini of All Time now!
Sharing this infographic that I update at the conclusion of each year.
We are fully back. By my objective-ish methodology, the BU era is now equal to the Before and During Dee era (1980 - 2006) of Illini basketball. And BU is quickly becoming the most decorated coach in Illini basketball history.
As a reminder, I started this a few years ago to:
a) Quantify the successfulness of a full season - regular season and post season summed together rather than thinking of them in a more siloed way.
b) Understand what our expectations should realistically be as a program.
c) Give context / a frame of reference for all the differing opinions about what those expectations should be. For example if one person's frame of reference is the After Dee years and another's is the BDD years, those expectations will probably deviate wildly. I wanted to visualize that.
Methodology:
Basically, I assign a point value to all the relevant milestones that happen throughout a season. (Scoring system is below) Then, I sum up those values and turn them into a percentage of the total points possible for that particular year. A perfect season would have a score of 100. Different years have different points possible due to number of games, conference tournaments, and size of the tournament field. This allows me to standardize the results across different eras.
This year, I did increase the value of a Final Four. It always bothered me that 1984 scored higher than 1989, but it was easy to view that as an anomaly..until this year's team scored a little bit lower than I felt was fair. Even still though, this year ranks as our 6th best season behind three non-Final Four teams: 1984, 2001, and 2021. Won't lie, that still seems not right to me, but I'm trying to keep in mind the point of this - to look at the season in its totality and not overvalue too much the one game difference between an Elite Eight and a Final Four for example.
Scoring:
We are fully back. By my objective-ish methodology, the BU era is now equal to the Before and During Dee era (1980 - 2006) of Illini basketball. And BU is quickly becoming the most decorated coach in Illini basketball history.
As a reminder, I started this a few years ago to:
a) Quantify the successfulness of a full season - regular season and post season summed together rather than thinking of them in a more siloed way.
b) Understand what our expectations should realistically be as a program.
c) Give context / a frame of reference for all the differing opinions about what those expectations should be. For example if one person's frame of reference is the After Dee years and another's is the BDD years, those expectations will probably deviate wildly. I wanted to visualize that.
Methodology:
Basically, I assign a point value to all the relevant milestones that happen throughout a season. (Scoring system is below) Then, I sum up those values and turn them into a percentage of the total points possible for that particular year. A perfect season would have a score of 100. Different years have different points possible due to number of games, conference tournaments, and size of the tournament field. This allows me to standardize the results across different eras.
This year, I did increase the value of a Final Four. It always bothered me that 1984 scored higher than 1989, but it was easy to view that as an anomaly..until this year's team scored a little bit lower than I felt was fair. Even still though, this year ranks as our 6th best season behind three non-Final Four teams: 1984, 2001, and 2021. Won't lie, that still seems not right to me, but I'm trying to keep in mind the point of this - to look at the season in its totality and not overvalue too much the one game difference between an Elite Eight and a Final Four for example.
Scoring:
This is really nice work!
Constructively, in my opinion the NCAA tournament is slightly underrated. Also, NBA draft picks could be considered with values for Lottery, 1st round, 2nd round as NBA development/readiness is a consideration when looking at the program as a whole.
CrazedUIFan
UI Fan in QC Land
I didn’t know this about Gill
What he didnt mention was being chased by the Chief in his dreams the night before
iLL 89ers
- Dallas,TX.......Born and raised in Alton,Illinois
Awesome, thank you for the share
Thanks! I agree the tourney still feels a little undervalued. It's really hard to strike the right balance.
chrisRunner7
- San Diego
I love this chart. I am a simple man and it is very visually pleasing to look at these little icons. I also like that "A.D." is "After Dee," lol.