Despite a mostly chalk bracket so far, men’s March Madness is drawing its best TV ratings in more than three decades.

Through the first two rounds, the NCAA tournament is averaging 9.4 million viewers per game across CBS, TNT, TBS, and truTV, marking the highest average audience through the round of 32 since 1993, according to Nielsen ratings.

After a record-breaking opening day, the first round finished with 8.8 million viewers per game—up 2% from 2024, marking the highest ever for the tournament under its traditional opening format of Thursday to Friday. Second-round games on Saturday and Sunday averaged 10.2 million viewers, up 3% from last year, and the most-watched round of 32 since 2017.

TruTV also had its most-watched First Four on record with 7.4 million gross viewers.

So far, the most-watched game window was late Sunday afternoon when 15.3 million viewers tuned in to coverage led by Kentucky’s 84–75 victory over Illinois.

Nielsen began tabulating out-of-home viewership in places like bars and restaurants in 2020 and has increased the sample since then, resulting in higher overall numbers.

Big Programs, Big Ratings?

With no Cinderella stories left to pull on fans’ heartstrings, CBS Sports and TNT Sports will rely on college basketball bluebloods and some high-profile coaches to entice viewers for the remainder of March Madness.

The Sweet 16 begins with four games Thursday night, headlined by a pair of No. 1 vs. No. 4 matchups. Maryland looks to take down Florida on TBS and truTV at 7:39 p.m. ET before CBS gets Arizona-Duke at 9:39 p.m. ET.

It’s truly all or nothing in Mets owner Steve Cohen’s ambitious effort to build an $8 billion casino and entertainment complex adjacent to Citi Field.

For the past 16 months, Cohen and Hard Rock International have actively pursued a large-scale development that includes a hotel and casino, 25 acres of green space, playgrounds, a 5,000-seat indoor music venue, a rebuilt transit hub, and a locally inspired food hall. Many of the facets of the proposed Metropolitan Park, targeted for a 2030 opening, are modeled after other sports-related real estate developments—including the South Philadelphia sports complex, the Braves’ Battery in Atlanta, and the Bucks’ Deer District in Milwaukee.

Metropolitan Park is also designed to complement a forthcoming stadium for Major League Soccer’s NYCFC and the ever-expanding USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, both near Citi Field.

The Queens, N.Y., initiative, however, rests on the consortium succeeding in obtaining one of three coveted downstate gaming licenses—which are set to be awarded in December. Metropolitan Park is one of 11 major entities pursuing those three licenses, with rival projects proposed for other iconic New York locales such as Times Square, Coney Island, Hudson Yards, and Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. 

There is no downscaled version of Metropolitan Park envisioned if the casino licenses go elsewhere, Metropolitan Park officials said, as the gaming revenue that would be generated is a key source of the project’s private funding.

Cohen and Hard Rock have pursued what Metropolitan Park officials call a “bottom-up” approach to securing local support, and the project has already cleared six different community boards that have a key advisory role in land use and zoning matters in the city. Earlier this month, the New York City Council also approved the project. Cohen and Hard Rock are still working on gaining the support of influential state Sen. Jessica Ramos, a longtime opponent of Metropolitan Park. 

How High Is High?

The Mets, meanwhile, are projecting a sizable increase in Citi Field attendance this year—continuing a ticket sales lift that initially happened after the record-setting $765 million signing of Juan Soto and then was followed by the retention of fan favorites such as first baseman Pete Alonso and pitcher Sean Manaea. 

The club’s 2025 spring training attendance in Port St. Lucie, Fla., reached a record 106,027, and season-ticket sales for Citi Field games are at the highest level in franchise history. Even with that, Mets president of business operations M. Scott Havens stopped short of predicting three million in attendance this season, something that hasn’t happened for the club since Citi Field’s debut year in 2009. 

“I don’t know [about three million]. There are still a lot of variables,” Havens said. “We’re very confident that we’re going to have a significant lift, and enthusiasm is very high coming out of last season, our playoff run, and what we did in the offseason. But we’ll have to see. We’re still selling.”

USC star JuJu Watkins, the favorite to win the 2025 Wooden Award, tore her ACL in the first quarter of the Trojans’ second-round game against Mississippi State on Monday night. The team announced that she would undergo surgery and ruled her out for the remainder of the tournament.

Given that ACL injuries require up to 12 months to recover, Watkins will likely miss most, if not all, of next season as well. Her absence will be a blow to the momentum of women’s basketball, especially because she was poised to take over as the face of the sport with Paige Bueckers expected to leave UConn this year.

Fortunately for USC and the NCAA, Watkins should return to college basketball by the 2026–2027 season. Watkins, who turns 20 in July, can’t enter the WNBA draft until 2027 since domestic prospects are required to be 22 years old in the year of the draft. 

This is a stark contrast from the men’s side, where top college prospects who sustained season-ending injuries during their college days—like Zion Williamson and Blake Griffin—still left for the pros immediately. NBA draft eligibility rules allow for players to enter the draft a year after high school and the much larger monetary benefits of locking into an NBA contract make the move financially logical for men’s basketball prospects.

There are a couple of scenarios that could mean Watkins already played her final college game, albeit unlikely. WNBA draft eligibility rules could change before 2027, especially given the league’s expected expansion from 12 to 16 teams by 2028 and the uncertainty surrounding the league’s collective bargaining agreement with its players’ association. Watkins could also take the unconventional route and go pro before 2027 by playing in Unrivaled—a league in which she is an investor. 

On the flip side, Watkins could also stay in college longer. If she is out all of next year, she’ll be given an additional year of NCAA eligibility, which she could use for the 2027–2028 season. This tactic could gauge the landscape of the pro scene to see whether waiting an extra year would make a difference in her contract or her WNBA landing spot—assuming she’s a surefire No. 1 pick in any draft class.

Trojans Still Fighting

USC still has a shot in the tournament despite the loss of perhaps the best player in the country. The burden now falls on forward Kiki Iriafen, the Stanford transfer who took a back seat to Watkins this year. She answered the call Monday following Watkins’s injury by dropping 36 points in the team’s blowout win.

Iriafen was once penciled in as the No. 2 pick in the 2025 draft behind Bueckers but has seen her stock drop slightly throughout the season. She could see her stock rise once again if she’s able to lead USC deeper into the tournament, starting with a face-off against Ayoka Lee and Kansas State on Saturday.