We often criticize for ESPN for seeming biased coverage, perceived scheduling slights, and more. It’s kind of a thing now to rip ESPN, and they probably deserve at least some it. Wednesday night for the ACC ESPN hit a scheduling home run, that was good for ESPN, good for the ACC, and especially good for the teams involved and their fans.
On Wednesday ESPN had a back to back basketball schedule of Syracuse vs Duke at 7 PM Eastern, and then Louisville vs North Carolina at 9 PM Eastern. That’s 4 Hall of Fame Coaches, 4 name brand basketball programs, and all 4 NCAA caliber teams playing on ESPN’s primary channel ESPN.
The games have been hyped all week, and the 1st one was a classic 78-75 win for Syracuse. UNC and Louisville is always worth the prices of admission.
This has been a showcase for those 4 teams, but during the telecasts the talk has been all ACC. That’s exactly what John Swofford wants to see.
Rating were also very good.
Weds college hoops on ESPN:
Louisville/North Carolina: 2.131M
Duke/Syracuse: 1.805MButler/Villanova on FS1: 284K
— Sports TV Ratings (@SportsTVRatings) February 23, 2017
I think this is something ESPN can build on. Can you see a late February Saturday with 4 ACC games starting at noon and going all day on ESPN? How would this be a for day? Notre Dame vs FSU at Noon, Virginia vs Virginia Tech at 3, then Syracuse vs Duke at 6, then Louisville vs UNC at 9 for example.
You may see more of this in the future for ESPN, where ACC teams are featured in a manner that creates the most national interest like on Wednesday night.
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