NCAA Tournament in broadcasting backlash ahead of Sweet 16 matchups

The NCAA Tournament has announced its tip-off times for the Sweet 16.

Four games will be played on Thursday and will be followed by the remaining four on Friday.

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The winners of the individual Sweet 16 games will advance to the Elite Eight, whose games will take place on Saturday and Sunday.

On Thursday, Purdue and Texas will face off at 7:10pm EST, Nebraska – Iowa at 7:30pm, followed by Arizona – Arkansas at 9:45pm and Houston vs Illinois at 10:05pm.

On Friday the remaining teams will face off at the same tip off times.

College basketball fans have taken note of the particularly late starting times for the matchups and took to social media to express their disappointment.

“The greatness of March Madness is over with these ridiculously late tip times. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted,” one fan commented.

“The schedule timing this year is not good. 9:45 and 10:10 EST???? Not like they’re playing on the west coast,” a second added.

“Why are the games so late? I know it gives more players rest and being in CA it’s not bad, but for the East Coast it’s terrible,” a third complained.

“Can we please get some 6/9pm game times please… I think I’ve reached the point in my life unless it’s one of my teams specifically, I am never making it to see the end of a 10pm game,” a fourth said.

“Nearly half the U.S. population lives in the Eastern Time ZOne (and only 16% in Pacific), yet we set games at 9:45 & 10:05pm on a work night. (And you know tip-off always gets delayed,” a fifth added.

“Why are we accommodating the west coast with prime time when 80% of the population lives in the eastern half of the US,” a sixth concluded.

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The move to schedule the Sweet 16 games is a perplexing one, given the success broadcasters saw in the opening round of the tournament.

CBS and TNT announced on Monday that first-round viewership averaged around 9.8 million viewers per window, up 6 percent from last year’s average of 9.1 million.

It also marks the third-consecutive year in which the pair of networks have touted record viewership for the first round of the tournament.

Last Thursday’s prime-time window, featuring Michigan-Howard and VCU-North Carolina averaged 12.5 million viewers, the most watched first-round window on record.

Siena’s near-upset of the No.1 seeded Duke Blue Devils was the most watched individual game of the opening round, averaging 5.43 million viewers, according to Sports Media Watch.

But Duke, and projected top-three pick Cameron Boozer, remain in the tournament and are scheduled to face St. Johns on Friday.

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The defending champions Florida became the first No.1 seed to fall in this year’s tournament, leaving Michigan and Arizona as joint favorites to win it all.

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