Williams' inbox: Why Cincinnati Bearcats' first Big 12 season hasn't generated much buzz
Subject: Ho-hum about Cincinnati Bearcats basketball
Message: Where’s the excitement for UC basketball? I thought there’d be more buzz simply by them going to the Big 12 this season.
Williams: These Bearcats won't be on your March Madness bracket. Here's why
Williams: Stick to Cincinnati sports and shut up about Biden, Trump, politics
Reply: We joke in the news business that people generally only tune in when a team is either really good or really bad (especially when it was expected to be good). The Bearcats are neither.
UC is improved this season, and the Bearcats are a bubble-watch team. But they haven’t been able to fully break free of the mediocrity the program has been mired in since 2019. Sitting at 5-7 in Big 12 play isn’t going to significantly move the excitement meter.
It can't help that the Big 12's media-rights deal relegates many basketball games to streaming-only. It's not UC's fault, but 12 of 18 conference games were slated to air exclusively on ESPN+ this season. Five of the last six regular-season games will be on ESPN+, making it hard to get casual fans interested down the stretch. UC was scheduled to appear only seven times on national TV in the regular season between Big 12 and non-conference games.
Two of UC’s three marquee wins this season were on ESPN+ − victories against then-ranked TCU and Texas Tech.
Hard to believe, but TV exposure in the American Athletic Conference was better. The Bearcats appeared on a regular, national TV network 16 times last season, including 12 league games. UC only had to play six conference games on ESPN+ during its last season in the American.
As I explained last month, the Big 12's TV exposure will improve when the conference's new deal with ESPN and Fox kicks in for the 2025-26 season.
Nonetheless, there are some signs that point to UC fans being a little more interested this season.
Attendance for conference games at Fifth Third Arena is up 18% from last season. UC has averaged 11,730 fans in six Big 12 games at Fifth Third Arena, ranking the Bearcats fifth in the league in home attendance. Half of those games have been sellouts. UC didn’t sell out any AAC home games last year.
Overall attendance is up 5.7% since the 2022-23 season to an average of 9,922 per home game. The average is dragged down by UC not playing any marquee, non-conference games at Fifth Third Arena this season. (Sorry, playing a bad Georgia Tech team the night before Thanksgiving doesn't count.)
The solution to more excitement: Start going to the NCAA Tournament regularly again and be on regular TV more often.
Email and ask columnist Jason Williams anything − sports or non-sports – and he’ll pick some of your messages and respond on Cincinnati.com throughout the week. Contact Jason at jwilliams@enquirer.com
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Is ESPN+, Big 12 TV deal hurting interest in UC Bearcats basketball?
