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Ohio State and BYU did more than just beat NCAA Tournament finals television ratings from last year — it more than tripled the amount of viewers.
The Buckeyes sweeping the Cougars in the 2016 NCAA Tournament finals drew 218,000 viewers and was among the top 30 most watched programs on ESPN2 that week, according to the latest ratings released during the weekend.
The viewers for the recent college men’s volleyball championship match is an increase of more than 1500,000 from the previous year. There were 63,000 watching the MIVAgeddon last year on ESPNU as Loyola beat Lewis in a fifth-game overtime to win the 2015 NCAA championship.
Along with the viewership increase, Ohio State versus BYU was the 30th most watched ESPN2 program from May 2-8 and the most watched live sporting event on the nationally televised network during that week. It also had almost 140,000 more viewers than the Rutgers and Maryland lacrosse game, which preceded the finals and ran long resulting in viewers missing the first 10 minutes of the volleyball match.
This was first year since 2011 that the men’s volleyball Division I-II NCAA Tournament finals aired on ESPN2 instead of ESPNU.
The women’s volleyball NCAA Tournament finals between Texas and Nebraska in December remains one of the most watched volleyball matches of the school year with 820,000 viewers.
Ohio State with its finals victory closed out the season on a 23-match winning streak and captured the program’s second national championship in the last six seasons. In addition, the MIVA extended its streak of winning three consecutive NCAA championships.