Sports briefs
By Associated Press
Super Bowl was the
most-watched program ever in the U.S., averaging
123.7 million viewers
The longest Super Bowl game will also go down as the most-watched program in U.S. television history.
According to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics, Kansas City’s 25-22 overtime victory over San Francisco on Sunday night averaged 123.7 million viewers across television and streaming platforms. That shattered last year’s mark of 115.1 million for Kansas City’s last-play victory over Philadelphia and is a 7% increase.
Nielsen updated its numbers Tuesday after releasing an early figure of 123.4 million on Monday night.
The game was televised by CBS, Nickelodeon and Univision and streamed on Paramount+ as well as the NFL’s digital platforms.
Nielsen also said a record 202.4 million watched at least part of the game across all networks, a 10% jump over last year’s figure of 183.6 million.
The CBS broadcast averaged 120.3 million. The network’s previous mark for its most-watched Super Bowl was 112.34 million for the 2016 game between the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers.
Some of the increase can be attributed to a change in the way viewers are counted. Nielsen began including out-of-home viewers in its ratings in 2020, but only from 65% of the country. That measurement is expected to expand to include all 50 states later this year.
Sunday’s game was only the second of the 58 Super Bowls to go to overtime. The previous one was in 2017, when New England rallied from a 28-3 deficit and beat Atlanta 34-28.
“I was managing my expectations, but I had a bit of hope that it would happen,” CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said of overtime, which was set up when San Francisco kicker Jake Moody had an extra point blocked in the fourth quarter, which kept it a three-point game. “I can’t imagine a Super Bowl any better or more exciting than this.”
Kansas City sent it to overtime on Harrison Butker’s field goal. After the 49ers kicked a field goal on the opening possession of OT, the Chiefs won when Patrick Mahomes threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Mecole Hardman.
This Super Bowl had the added attraction of Taylor Swift in attendance. The pop superstar is dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, a romance that has brought new fans to the NFL.
It was the second straight year the Super Bowl averaged more than 100 million viewers after a period where four of the five games before 2023 had fallen short of that number because of cord-cutting. That included 95.2 million for the 2021 Super Bowl between Tampa Bay and Kansas City, which was the game’s lowest TV-only average since 2007.
Univision averaged 2.3 million viewers, the highest Super Bowl viewership on record for a Spanish-language network. The Super Bowl has been televised in Spanish in the United States since 2014.
Nielsen also said Tuesday that Usher’s Super Bowl halftime performance averaged 129.3 million viewers — the most-watched Super Bowl halftime on record and a 7% increase from Rihanna’s last year (121 million).
Nickelodeon’s kids-centric broadcast, the first alternate feed of a Super Bowl, averaged 1.2 million.
The NFL playoffs averaged 38.5 million viewers the first three weekends, a 9% increase over last year.
That followed a regular season that averaged 17.9 million, tied for the second highest since averages were first tracked in 1995.
Bill Self gets first ejection at Kansas while becoming third Big 12 coach
tossed this month
LUBBOCK, Texas | Kansas coach Bill Self said he didn’t curse or yell, and wasn’t really trying to get thrown out of the game. Still, he had seen enough in a lopsided road loss for his sixth-ranked Jayhawks.
Self was ejected for the first time in his 21 seasons at Kansas after getting two technical fouls in quick succession with just under six minutes remaining in a 79-50 loss at Texas Tech on Monday night. He became the third Big 12 coach this month with a first-time ejection at his school.
“I did say a magic word, I guess, multiple times that got me a couple of techicals,” Self said.
Those technical fouls came right after Kansas center Hunter Dickinson was called for an offensive foul under the basket, though that wasn’t all that bothered the coach.
“I honestly feel the game’s not being called the way it needs to be called,” Self said. “Regardless of it’s our favor or their favor, it makes no difference to me.”
Pop Isaacs made all four free throws after Self left the court for a 63-43 lead.
“That was frustration, but I felt that all year,” Self said. “So, good officials … good officials, I just don’t see it the same way that it’s being called.”
Self said there has been a lot of physicality, “more this year than there has been in years past.”
It was the 722nd game at Kansas for Self, whose only other ejection in 31 seasons overall as a college head coach came in 1999 while with Tulsa at Wyoming.
Houston coach Kelvin Sampson got two technical fouls and was ejected with 15:08 remaining in a home win February 6. Sampson stormed to the other end of the court and started yelling at the officials for not calling fouls against Oklahoma State.
Sampson had to be restrained by his players and assistant coaches and ushered off the floor. It was his first ejection in 10 years of coaching at Houston.
Baylor’s Scott Drew, who also in his 21st season is tied with Self as the Big 12’s longest-tenured coaches, got his first career ejection February 2 after two technical fouls in a home win over Iowa State. Both fouls, one midway through the first half and the other with 11 1/2 minutes left, apparently were because he was outside the coaching box.
The Big 12 fined Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades $25,000 and issued a public reprimand because of his criticism of officials after Drew’s ejection. Rhoades called the officiating in that game “an embarrassment” for the league.
Retired All-Star pitcher Wainwright joins MLB Network as an on-air analyst
SECAUCUS, N.J. | Retired St. Louis Cardinals All-Star pitcher Adam Wainwright has joined the MLB Network as an on-air analyst.
Wainwright will make his debut on opening day, March 28, the network said Tuesday. He will work the Cardinals’ game against San Francisco at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 20.
Wainwright went 200-128 with a 3.53 ERA in 18 major league seasons, all with the Cardinals. The 42-year-old right-hander got his 200th win in his final pitching appearance against Milwaukee on Sept. 18.
Other MLB analysts include Yonder Alonso, Alex Avila, Jake Peavy, Albert Pujols and Chris Young.
Fired Northwestern coach wants to move up trial, return to football soon
An attorney for former Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald urged a judge Tuesday to move up the trial in a dispute over his firing, saying he can’t get another major job until he puts a hazing scandal behind him.
“It has decimated his career,” lawyer Dan Webb said.
Fitzgerald was initially suspended for two weeks and then fired last year after 17 years as head coach of the Wildcats. Northwestern said he had a responsibility to know that hazing was occurring and should have stopped it.
Fitzgerald denies wrongdoing. He responded by suing the school for $130 million, claiming he was wrongly fired.
A Cook County judge has set an April 2025 trial date, but Webb wants it moved to December 2024.
“If we get a trial in December and he’s exonerated, he will still have January to get a coaching position” elsewhere, Webb said. “But if he misses three seasons in a row, it’s going to be significantly different.”
Judge Daniel Kubasiak acknowledged that timing is important to Fitzgerald, but he added: “I’m not sure I can necessarily allow that to dictate.”
Reid Schar, an attorney representing Northwestern, said dates and deadlines in the case so far seem to be aggressive. He noted that documents number in the thousands.
Fitzgerald has “chosen to pursue this litigation,” Schar said. “And so we have to pick a schedule that’s actually achievable, not one that’s defined by what he might want to do for the rest of his life.”
The judge set a status hearing for April 2. He hopes the lawsuit can be settled.
“I don’t think any party wins if this matter goes to trial,” Kubasiak said.
No immediate ruling after preliminary injunction hearing in Tennessee, Virginia NIL lawsuit vs. NCAA
A federal judge said Tuesday he will rule “in short order” on a preliminary injunction requested by the states of Tennessee and Virginia to stop the NCAA from enforcing its rules governing name, image and likeness compensation for athletes as part of an antitrust lawsuit.
U.S. District Judge Clifton Corker originally had a four-hour window blocked off for the hearing in Greeneville, Tennessee. The hearing for the states’ request lasted less than 90 minutes.
An orange power T flag representing Tennessee hung from a construction lift in the parking lot facing the courthouse.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti attended and spoke to reporters outside. He said in a prepared statement the NCAA’s “arbitrary and illegal rules” are keeping athletes from making important decisions.
“Meanwhile, everybody else involved in college sports is getting rich at those student-athletes’ expense,” Skrmetti said. “That is not legal, not right and it needs to change. Antitrust law in this area is clear, and as the Court has previously said, our case is likely to succeed on the merits. We are happy with the case’s progression and look forward to litigating it fully if necessary.”
Corker denied the states’ request for a temporary restraining order last week, noting they failed to demonstrate recruits would be irreparably harmed if it was not granted. But he also wrote the states were “likely to succeed on the merits of their claim” under the Sherman Act.
The chancellor of the University of Tennessee revealed Jan. 30 in a scathing letter to the NCAA president that the organization was alleging the school violated NIL rules after a meeting a day earlier. Donde Plowman called it “intellectually dishonest” for NCAA staff to pursue infractions cases as if students have no NIL rights.
The NIL collective supporting Tennessee athletes was among the first to emerge after the NCAA lifted its ban on athletes making money off their fame. The NCAA’s investigation has been met with aggressive pushback from both school leaders and the state’s attorney general, including the antitrust lawsuit that claims denying recruits the ability to cash in on NIL is restraint of trade.
The NCAA’s authority to regulate compensation for athletes has been under attack from a variety of avenues.
A National Labor Relations Board official ruled last week that members of the Dartmouth men’s basketball team are employees of the school and could vote to form a union, which the players plan to do. The Tennessee case is one of at least six antitrust lawsuits the NCAA is defending as it also asks for antitrust protections from Congress.
In December, a group of states challenged NCAA rules regarding multi-time transfers, with the plaintiffs’ request for TRO being granted. In that case, the NCAA conceded for the moment, asking the TRO be extended to clear up confusion about athletes’ eligibility for the rest of the spring semester. The NCAA is working to reform its transfer rules.
The NCAA failed to implement detailed rules to regulate NIL in 2021, instead leaning on existing rules against recruiting inducements and pay-for-play. The policy, along with many state-level NIL laws, kept schools from being involved in activities that could be seen as creating an employer-employee relationship between institution and athlete.
The NCAA has been moving forward with its own NIL regulations, passing legislation last month that it hopes will bring transparency to the market with the reporting of deals and curb bad actors by maintaining a registry of agents and companies to work with athletes.
—From AP reports
