High Point forward Braden Hausen, right, and Wisconsin guard Andrew Rohde (7) react during the second half in the first round of the NCAA college basketball tournament Thursday, March 19, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (Craig Mitchelldyer / The Associated Press)
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By
Matt Calkins
Seattle Times columnist
We’ll start with the complaints in college sports, because there is certainly no shortage of them.
Low on NIL money? Good luck competing. Same is true if you’re outside of a major conference. The between-the-lines decline of Pacific Northwest mainstays such as Washington State and Oregon State have proven as much.
And this certainly isn’t exclusive to football. Over the past two seasons, no men’s basketball team outside a power league has managed to reach the Sweet 16. Yes, it’s just two years — and sports are cyclical. But the financial disparities between the haves and the have-nots have not been good for the latter.
Attached to a key player? Good luck seeing him next year. The transfer-portal rules have primed just about anyone who’s not a star on a marquee team for an upgrade after a standout season. NIL contracts can help keep some in place, but given how Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. nearly transferred after signing one, it’s fair to wonder just how binding they are.The result? Roundtables at the White House followed by the establishment of committees in search of college-sports reform. Frustration from fan bases who have gone from dreaming of Rose Bowls to accepting their Famous Idaho Potato Bowl fate. And just recently, Washington athletic director Pat Chun saying that, when it comes to college sports, “the current environment is not sustainable by any stretch of the imagination.”
It can certainly feel that way. There is just this one, tiny thing — the country can’t stop watching.
Last week, March Madness viewership records were shattered, with CBS, TNT, TBS and TruTV averaging 10.7 million viewers over the first two rounds — the most in tournament history. The football national championship between Indiana and Miami, meanwhile, drew 30.1 million viewers — the most since the College Football Playoff’s inaugural title game 11 years ago.
It wasn’t limited to one game, though. According to ESPN, college football produced its largest regular-season audience across all networks since 2016.
It’s quite the juxtaposition. On one hand, you seem to have millions of fans bemoaning the college-sports landscape being fundamentally broken — to the point that federal committees have been formed. On the other hand, the revenue-generating sports appear to have a national appeal not seen in at least a decade.
“Appear,” however, is the operative word here. Last month, Bay Area News Group college football writer Jon Wilner pointed out how Nielsen Media Research altered the way it collects data — namely via its Out-of-Home audience measurement, which includes sports bars. If there are a couple million people per day or game that weren’t previously accounted for because they were watching at the pub down the street, that will now show up in the ratings.
Even so, we are dealing with an immensely popular product that, nonetheless, is leaving so many fans — and dare I say programs? — longing for the old days.
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Most former Pac-12 teams, for instance, can’t be feeling great about where they are now vs. five years ago. Yes, Oregon has reached the CFP in each of the past two years, losing in the quarterfinals (as a No. 1 seed) two seasons ago and the semis last season. And yes, No. 1 seed Arizona takes on Purdue in the Elite Eight Saturday. There was also Arizona State reaching the CFP quarters two seasons ago before falling to Texas in overtime. But mainly, it’s been a lot of middling.
Arizona and UCLA — a seven seed that lost in the second round — were the only former Pac-12 teams to make the NCAA tournament this year on the men’s side. Oregon and ASU are the only former Pac-12 teams to reach the CFP in the past two years, and have a record of 2-3.
Was the Pac-12 doing much before the conference disintegrated? With respect to the 2023 Huskies team that reached the football natty … not really. But the conference switch hasn’t paid immediate dividends. Maybe in time.
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You can certainly make an argument that the consolidation of power in college sports makes for better matchups come playoff time. This Sweet 16 has been a blue-blood bonanza, with several close, high-quality games. There is no shortage of talent at the top.
And even though there have been upsets — 12th-seeded High Point knocking off fifth-seeded Wisconsin, ninth-seeded Iowa beating top-seeded Florida, and 16th-seeded Siena almost beating top-seeded Duke — this tournament has been a reflection of college sports’ growing divide.
The eyeballs are there. No one’s disputing that. But that doesn’t mean Chun and others aren’t correct. College sports look to be in good shape … but something isn’t quite right.
Matt Calkins: mcalkins@seattletimes.com. Matt Calkins has been a sports columnist with the Seattle Times since 2015, where he has covered national title games, got a Seahawk to design his apartment and once extracted a two-word quote from Marshawn Lynch.
