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Six college basketball games rank among Top 50 most-viewed sporting events

tournament

Sports Media Watch took time during the Major League Baseball all-star break to release its list of the top 50 most-viewed sporting events of the first half of 2012.

The most-viewed college basketball game, unsurprisingly, was Kentucky’s win over Kansas in the national title game with a rating of 12.3 and just under 20,900,000 viewers.

That was good for 15th on the list, with two other games making the Top 25.

The six other college basketball games to make the list were:

21. Kansas/Ohio State (Final Four)

25. Kentucky/Louisville (Final Four)

32. Kansas/North Carolina (Elite 8)

35. Ohio State/Syracuse (Elite 8)

45. North Carolina/Creighton (round of 32)

46. Kentucky/Indiana (Sweet 16)

Interestingly enough the game between the Tar Heels and Bluejays registered a higher rating than the rematch of arguably the best game of the regular season.

That’s the game where North Carolina saw their national title hopes take a serious hit due to Kendall Marshall breaking his right wrist in the second half.

Kansas and Kentucky were each a part of three games that made the list; the name brand programs put up the best numbers when it comes to television ratings so that is no surprise.

NCAA tournament ratings reportedly dropped five percent from 2011 to 2012, the first time since 2008 in which there was a decrease.

As much as people tend to flock towards the traditional powers, having some unpredictability sprinkled in is usually good for television ratings over the long haul.

Photo credit: Ted Kirk/Lincoln Journal-Star

Raphielle is also the assistant editor at CollegeHoops.net and can be followed on Twitter at @raphiellej.