"Those late starts suck": College hoops fans complain as women's national title game ratings eclipse men's event for first time in NCAA history 

For the first time, the NCAA Tournament saw the women`s national championship game eclipse that of the men's in terms of peak viewership, with the South Carolina-Iowa clash drawing 18.9 million viewers and the UConn-Purdue clash drawing 14.8 million. As expected, fans flocked to social media to share their thoughts on the milestone.

Some fans on X were critical of the NCAA Tournament's scheduling for the championship games, saying that late starts helped doom the men's title game ratings.

The men's basketball game started at around 9:30 p.m. ET on a Monday night. The women's title game, on the other hand, was set far earlier in the day at 3 p.m. Sunday.

It's understandable how college hoops fans would struggle to catch the men's national title game and keep watching until the end during a work week. Meanwhile, the women's game was earlier in the day on a weekend day.

Either way, the women`s NCAA Tournament championship game between South Carolina and Iowa was a ratings juggernaut, just as basketball pundits like Skip Bayless predicted. The 18.9 million peak viewer count also eclipsed this year's other hyped women's games like LSU vs. Iowa in the Elite Eight (16.1 million) and Iowa vs. UConn in the Final Four (17 million).

Other fans say the men`s game was 'boring'

Other than saying that it was hard to catch the men's game due to scheduling issues, other fans on X said that UConn-Purdue just wasn't as exciting a matchup compared to the women`s game.

"Nobody really wanted a Purdue vs UCONN Matchup, it was the worst possible outcome for viewership, it was a boring game, I watched about ten minutes total in small chunks as I washed dishes etc," one fan said.

"Ngl watched every second of the Women’s Final but fell asleep after halftime of the Men’s Final. Wasn’t as exciting I guess🤷🏽‍♂️ "another fan added.

"True, the women's game had absolute super star Caitlin Clark, and the men's game started at 9:30pm on a monday," another fan wrote.

The new viewership marks for women's basketball are here to stay until another generational hoops talent follows and makes her mark, drawing people in to watch.