Louisville among 10 most watched teams in men's, women's college hoops

Stop me if you've heard this before: Louisville basketball fans near and far have been glued to their televisions this season.

The Cardinals entered 2026 as one of only three schools to earn a spot among the country's 10 most watched programs in both men's and women's hoops, according to a report from Nielsen. The others? UConn and North Carolina.

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To reiterate: This should not be a surprise to anyone, considering the teams coaches Pat Kelsey and Jeff Walz put together, the marquee opponents on their schedules and the city's well-documented appetite for the game.

The Wall Street Journal dubbed Louisville "The College Basketball Capital of the World" in March 2015. In the report, Ben Cohen and Kevin Clark said, "People in Kentucky don't just watch their own teams more than anyone else. They watch every team more than anyone else. Louisville has registered the country's highest television ratings among metered markets in college-basketball programming for at least the last dozen years, according to ESPN data."

Then, there's the matter of the city's obsession with the NCAA Tournament. CBS Sports told The Courier Journal in April 2023 that Louisville had led the country's local TV markets in March Madness viewership for 20 of the past 21 years.

So, it was never really a question of whether UofL would be included in Nielsen's rankings, which reflect viewership across CBS, The CW, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, Fox, FS1, FS2, NBC, USA, truTV and TNT for the men and ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU for the women. Rather, where does it stand when compared with the sport's other marquee programs?

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Here's a look:

Louisville basketball TV ratings: Where do Pat Kelsey's Cardinals rank among country's most watched teams?

Averaging 878,000 viewers per game as of Dec. 31, the Louisville men ranked seventh on Nielsen's viewership leaderboard:

1. Michigan State

2. Arkansas

3. Duke

4. North Carolina

5. Kentucky

6. Kansas

7. Louisville

8. Indiana

9. UConn

10. Purdue

The Cards' most watched game to this point? Their win over cross-state rival Indiana on Dec. 6 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis averaged 1.4 million viewers on CBS — a broadcast that some may remember most for using on-court tracking data to generate virtual recreations of plays instead of ... you know ... just showing an instant replay.

For reference, the high-water mark for a regular-season game in 2025-26 is 6.813 million viewers. That's how many Duke and Arkansas averaged on CBS when they battled on Thanksgiving Day at the United Center in Chicago — the largest audience on any network during the regular season in more than three decades.

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It'll be hard to top that holiday showcase, but UofL will be a fixture of ESPN's Big Monday schedule in the coming weeks after not playing a regular-season ACC game on the network's flagship channel in 2024-25 — and getting only two during Kenny Payne's disastrous two-year tenure. Two of its opponents in these games ranked higher on Nielsen's leaderboard to begin the year:

• Jan. 26: at Duke (7 p.m.)

• Feb. 9: vs. N.C. State (7 p.m.)

• Feb. 23: at North Carolina (7 p.m.)

The Blue Devils, Arizona and Kansas are the only other programs with three Big Monday games this season. The last time Louisville was featured on the Big Monday schedule was Feb. 20, 2023 — a 79-62 loss at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

For more context: Between the 2018-19 and 2021-22 seasons, Louisville appeared on ESPN a combined 33 times; although two of those games were postponed. It also had 17 games on ESPN2, one of which was canceled; four on ESPNU; four on CBS; and two on Fox.

Louisville women's basketball TV ratings: Where do Jeff Walz's Cardinals rank among country's most watched teams?

Averaging 404,000 viewers per game as of Dec. 31, the Louisville women ranked fifth on Nielsen's viewership leaderboard:

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1. Iowa

2. Iowa State

3. UConn

4. Notre Dame

5. Louisville

6. USC

7. UCLA

8. South Carolina

9. North Carolina

10. Baylor

The Cards' most watched game to this point? A 79-77 loss to South Carolina on Dec. 4 at the KFC Yum! Center, which averaged 598,000 viewers on ESPN — one of their four games on the network's flagship station this season.

Walz's team has made up for that loss to the Gamecocks — and a season-opening defeat to the Huskies on ESPN, in a game that was originally planned for Ramstein Air Base in Germany — with a couple of marquee wins to close 2025: 76-66 in overtime over the Tar Heels on Dec. 14 and 89-65 over Tennessee on Dec. 20.

The latter aired on Fox, which wasn't factored into Nielsen's rankings.

UofL has two more games on ESPN remaining, Jan. 29 at Stanford (8 p.m.) and Feb. 5 vs. Duke (7 p.m.), and two more on ESPN2, Jan. 18 at N.C. State (1 p.m.) and March 1 vs. Notre Dame (4 p.m.).

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Reach Louisville men's basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville basketball TV ratings, most watched college teams