North Carolina-LSU Baseball Playoffs TV Ratings Blew Away All Non-Caitlin Clark WNBA Games

Published|Updated

They are not quite in the exclusive and elite Caitlin Clark Zone of TV ratings, but the NCAA Regional college baseball playoffs in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, over the weekend on ESPN2 blew away the ratings for the rest of the WNBA across various networks all season.

LSU and coach Jay Johnson put up a fight through the losers' bracket at the NCAA Chapel Hill Regional over the weekend before getting eliminated by No. 4 seed and host North Carolina, 4-3, in 10 innings on Monday night. (Getty Images)

No. 4 seed North Carolina's 4-3 win over defending national champion LSU in 10 innings at Boshamer Stadium that ended at 9:26 p.m. on Monday drew an average of 964,000 viewers, making it the most-watched NCAA Regional game in history, according to a release by ESPN. North Carolina (45-14) advanced to host West Virginia (36-22) in a best-of-three Super Regional beginning Friday (6 p.m., ESPN2) with a trip to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, on the line.

ANALYSIS: College Baseball Growing

The previous night, LSU's 8-4 win over the Tar Heels averaged 756,000 viewers on ESPN2, and that wasn't even much of a game. The Tigers led big for most of that one, including by 8-2 after six innings. And that game ranks No. 2 all-time in NCAA Regional viewership, according to ESPN.

CAITLIN-TV: Caitlin Clark Alone Attracting Record WNBA Viewership 

Even the No. 2 all-time watched Regional game more than doubled the average viewership on various networks for all WNBA games this season - not involving Indiana Fever rookie superstar Caitlin Clark. Her games are averaging 1.0999 million viewers a game - a staggering total compared to WNBA viewership before her.

The combined viewership of all NCAA Regional games last weekend on the various ESPN stations also set a record for most-watched Regional with an average of 308,000 viewers.

ANALYSIS: Non-Brand Names In College Baseball Thriving

Super Regional Games

Here is the schedule for the Super Regional games this weekend:

FRIDAY

Connecticut (35-24) at No. 8 seed Florida State (45-15), Noon, ESPN.

Evansville (38-24) at No. 1 seed Tennessee (53-11), 3 p.m., ESPN.

West Virginia (36-22) at No. 4 seed North Carolina (45-14), 6 p.m., ESPN2.

Kansas State (35-24) at Virginia (44-15), 7 p.m., ESPNU.

SATURDAY

North Carolina State (36-20) at No. 7 seed Georgia (42-15), Noon, ESPN.

Florida (32-28) at No. 6 seed Clemson (44-14), 2 p.m. ESPN.

Oregon (40-18) at No. 3 Texas A&M (47-13), 2 p.m., ESPN2.

Oregon State (45-14) at No. 2 seed Kentucky (43-14), 6 p.m., ESPNU.

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Guilbeau joined OutKick as an SEC columnist in September of 2021 after covering LSU and the Saints for 17 years at USA TODAY Louisiana. He has been a national columnist/feature writer since the summer of 2022, covering college football, basketball and baseball with some NFL, NBA, MLB, TV and Movies and general assignment, including hot dog taste tests. A New Orleans native and Mizzou graduate, he has consistently won Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) and Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) awards since covering Alabama and Auburn at the Mobile Press-Register (1993-98) and LSU and the Saints at the Baton Rouge Advocate (1998-2004). In 2021, Guilbeau won an FWAA 1st for a game feature, placed in APSE Beat Writing, Breaking News and Explanatory, and won Beat Writer of the Year from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA). He won an FWAA columnist 1st in 2017 and was FWAA's top overall winner in 2016 with 1st in game story, 2nd in columns, and features honorable mention. Guilbeau completed a book in 2022 about LSU's five-time national champion coach - "Everything Matters In Baseball: The Skip Bertman Story" - that is available at www.acadianhouse.com, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble outlets. He lives in Baton Rouge with his wife, the former Michelle Millhollon of Thibodaux who previously covered politics for the Baton Rouge Advocate and is a communications director.