Regular-season basketball rarely rivals football in the St. Louis television ratings. But the much-hyped Kansas-Missouri hoops game last Saturday, KU's final appearance at MU for the foreseeable future, pulled the upset.
According to The Nielsen Co., 9.2 percent of homes in the market tuned in to ESPN's telecast of the contest. While obviously not rivaling the Super Bowl rating of 45.5 on KSDK (Channel 5) the next day, that MU basketball game fared better than any Tigers football outing did in the local TV numbers this school year.
And despite the Blues' surge this season, MU's rating Saturday far surpassed the hockey team's top number to date — 5.6.
But let's put that MU-KU basketball rating in perspective. The last time the Tigers and Jayhawks met in a huge, well-hyped football game — the 2007 showdown when both schools were ranked in the top five nationally — the telecast drew a 26 rating locally.
Nonetheless, after the end of a string of nonconference games that mostly were of little interest early in the season, the MU basketball team has been performing well in the St. Louis ratings.
Going back to when the Tigers played Illinois in late December — traditionally the beginning of the meat of their schedule — MU is averaging a 5.1 rating in St. Louis for the 10 contests in which figures are available. In contrast, the 10 Mizzou football telecasts for which viewership was measured last fall drew a 5.0 figure.
But again, perspective is needed — this was a down season for MU football ratings, as the number was less than half the figure for 2010 (10.4). And from 2007-2010 the football rating was 9.6.
Meanwhile, ESPN was camped out at Mizzou Arena throughout Saturday, bringing its basketball version of "College GameDay'' program to Columbia for the first time. The morning edition drew a 1.6 rating and the evening airing, which led into the contest, was at 3.1. The previous two weeks the early "GameDay'' averaged a 0.5 rating and the night version had a 1.1 figure in St. Louis.
The bottom line is that MU is surging in local interest, and a deep run in the postseason could bring huge viewership numbers.
Billiken blahs (again)
It seems as if poor St. Louis University just can't catch a broadcasting break. A couple recent SLU men's basketball radio broadcasts were hampered by technical troubles that made the announcers sound as if they were working on a primitive ham radio setup, and part of one game was missed entirely because of an inexperienced engineer's inability to correct a problem.
Then the TV side had its own rinky-dink situation Saturday when the Billikens faced Dayton. Fox Sports Midwest carried the game on its "FSM Plus'' outlet (it had a prior commitment to a Missouri Valley Conference game on its main channel), and SLU's telecast cut out multiple times because of "transmission issues.''
That added to the aggravation some Bills fans had because Fox Sports Midwest was showing Fox Sports Ohio's telecast, which was slanted toward Dayton. The name of Chaifetz Arena was mispronounced, and viewers were told to stick around after the game for the Cleveland Cavaliers' pregame show — which obviously didn't air in St. Louis.
Then on Wednesday, when the Bills played at St. Joseph's, the feed from Philadelphia's Comcast Network aired on KPLR (Channel 11). This telecast was much more down-the-middle in terms of slant than was the Fox Sports Ohio production, but it still was far from ideal for those wanting the SLU perspective.
Of course it's cheaper to piggyback on another broadcast than to produce a separate one, but the result has that feel — cheap.
It falls into "it's better than nothing'' department that the games were shown, as this Saturday's contest (at La Salle) isn't on the TV schedule. But as SLU strives to improve its basketball standing, these kind of radio-TV second-rate situations need to end. You don't see this happening regularly with regional competitors Mizzou and Illinois.
By the way, the game vs. St. Joseph's drew a 1.2 rating. Saturday's number is unavailable.
