Listen to Clay Travis discuss the NCAA’s seemingly counterintuitive belief to annually start their men’s college basketball National Championship Game at 9:20 ET on a Monday Night.
For almost 30 years now the networks have tried to balance the schedules of TV audiences on both coasts during primetime viewership hours, attempting a 9:20ET (6:20 PT) tip that would allow West Coasters to tune into the game after commuting home from work.
The problem? The game nearly hits midnight for an area of the country that makes up the vast majority of the United States population, especially when it comes to a sport like college basketball that has been dominated by schools in the eastern time zone the past 30 years.
Not only do most early-rising adults have to go to bed far before midnight, but that leaves grade school aged children out of luck, who either have school night bedtimes they have to abide by, or the simple fact that children naturally can’t stay up well into the night like a normal adult.
Check out the audio below as Clay believes the NCAA is not only costing itself viewership, but alienating an entire younger generation of fans who won’t see the grandest event the sport has to offer.