March Madness is doing fine without a Cinderella
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TV ratings and ticket sales indicate "Cinderella" teams aren't necessary for a buzzworthy March Madness.
The big picture: Fans enjoy watching the best teams play.
By the numbers: The first round of the men's Final Four drew the highest viewership in eight years, with an average of 15.3 million fans tuning in.
- Viewership for the tournament as a whole is up 2%.
State of play: This year's bracket lacked improbable, deep runs from lower seeds like North Carolina State last year or Loyola Chicago in 2018.
- Both teams made the Final Four as the 11th seed in their respective tournaments.
The average resale ticket price to attend Saturday's Final Four games (in which every team was a No. 1 seed) was $702, according to SeatGeek.
- That's up from the average of $611 in 2023 when the Final Four teams included No. 9 Florida Atlantic, No. 5 San Diego State, No. 4 UConn and No. 5 Miami.
What they're saying: "There's been a lot of standing on business," former University of South Carolina star A'ja Wilson told Axios at an AT&T press event.
- "Being a No. 1 seed, you don't want to get upset. I think a lot of the top teams were like, 'No, we're going to show that we can hang in and win games.'"
- "Seeing how the basketball gods move, we're going to have more Cinderella stories. I think it's just one of those years where [the top teams] are just really good," said Wilson.
Yes, but: Some argue that these plucky underdogs may cease to exist as good players transfer to more elite programs that can offer them more NIL money.
