South Carolina and LSU Showdown Delivers Strong Ratings Despite Schedule Change

The much anticipated South Carolina and LSU game did not disappoint when it comes to viewership, despite a schedule change.

Jan 24, 2025; Columbia, South Carolina, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks guard Tessa Johnson (5) shoots the ball against the LSU Lady Tigers in the first half at Colonial Life Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-Imagn Images | Jeff Blake-Imagn Images

South Carolina's 66-56 win over LSU certainly provided plenty to talk about. With Kim Mulkey dubbing Dawn Staley's squad the best team in the country following her team's defeat.

However, the anticipation for this hotly contested rivalry game could have been dampened by a schedule change.

The contest was supposed to be in primetime last Thursday with ESPN College GameDay in tow, but instead was moved to Friday evening due to weather and with the extra production of ESPN's staple college programming no longer involved.

But if the hype was lessened at all by the delay, it did not show up in the ratings. The Gamecocks victory over the Tigers still drew 844,000 viewers and peaked at over 1 million despite the schedule change and 5pm Eastern Friday night start.

Viewers tuned in for No. 5 @LSUwbkb vs No. 2 @GamecockWBB Friday evening - making it the 2nd most-watched #NCAAWBB game this season on ESPN platforms

🏀 841K viewers
🏀 Peaked with 1.1M viewers
🏀 4th most-watched game across all networks this season pic.twitter.com/g3ibJBig3v

— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) January 27, 2025

This was good enough to make it the second most watched NCAA women's basketball game on all ESPN platforms this season, trailing Notre Dame's victory over UConn from December by just a few thousand viewers.

It was the fourth most-watched women's college basketball game across all networks this season with USC's win over UConn on December 21 leading the charge in that category.

If there is to be another meeting between these two powerhouse programs, it will have to come in the postseason. However, given the fact both teams are ranked in the top ten (South Carolina is no. 2, LSU no. 7), that could be a solid bet.

And these viewership numbers clearly indicate that if Staley's South Carolina squad does face off with Kim Mulkey's LSU team again later in the year, fans will certainly be tuned in to see if the Tigers can get a measure of revenge.