Will college basketball gain from NBA lockout?

Will college basketball gain from NBA lockout?

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- The NBA lockout could be college basketball's gain. With 26 percent of the NBA's games already cancelled and the season in jeopardy, there appears to be an opportunity for the college game to grab more fans, at least for the time being.

During the NBA's last lockout, which ended in February 1999, the average attendance at more than 4,000 college games only rose by only six people, according to ESPN.com. But college TV ratings went up 22 percent.

One difference since then is the NBA's age limit, approved by collective bargaining in 2005, even further establishes college basketball as the pro's minor league system. Tomorrow's NBA stars essentially have to stop in college for at least one year.

This time around, ESPN has already put more games on TV than normal since there's no NBA to televise. And college basketball has an improved product to sell with brand names atop the rankings and so many underclassmen back out of fear of the lockout.

Whether college hoops can capitalize brings varying opinions and essentially depends on this question: Do enough NBA fans miss the sport to care about the college game?

"I think if you're a basketball fan, you're a fan of both," Auburn coach Tony Barbee said. "To have the stage this time of year to itself if the lockout continues -- and hopefully it doesn't because I'm a huge NBA fan -- it's going to draw greater fan appeal to that kind of borderline basketball fan. If there's no NBA basketball, then we're the only option."

Yet for every opinion like that, there's dissenting thought from people such as Kentucky's John Calipari, who once coached in the NBA.

"The true NBA fans barely watch college basketball, and the true college fans barely watch the NBA," Calipari said. "The college fans will look at it and say, 'Ahhh, you don't play until the fourth quarter.' And the pro fans will say, 'They can't even make layups. They've got no skills.' That's how it is. None of that will change."

Basketball Hall of Famer C.M. Newton, a former chairman of the NCAA Tournament selection committee, agrees that college won't gain even casual viewers.

"I think college basketball has traditionally stood on its own, and will continue to pretty much do that," he said. "The pro game is so different in so many ways. It's more of a corporate game. Corporations tend to spend a lot more money and effort on professional sports. And the fan who's a fan of college basketball, he may go to the occasional 76ers game if he lives in Philadelphia, but he's still mainly a Villanova fan."

The NBA lockout coincides with some momentum for college hoops, whose NCAA Tournament ratings last season were up 9 percent.

That was the first season of the NCAA's 14-year, $10.8-billion contract with CBS and Turner that meant every tournament game was televised nationally for the first time. Last year's Final Four, featuring Butler, Virginia Commonwealth, Kentucky and Connecticut, tied for the highest rated since 2005.

Within the past week, college hoops has gotten plenty of attention. ESPN heavily promoted Duke's Mike Krzyzewski breaking Bob Knight's all-time wins record in a doubleheader at Madison Square Garden that also featured Michigan State, Kansas and Kentucky.

Before that, North Carolina and Michigan State played on the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson and tied for ESPN's highest rating ever for a November college game. The game drew a 2.7 rating, tying the previous November high when Indiana and Seton Hall played in the Preseason NIT Championship in 1992. North Carolina-Michigan State was ESPN's most-watched college hoops game in any month since North Carolina-Duke in March 2006.

This week's Associated Press poll is filled with traditional powers ranked high. The top 10 alone includes North Carolina, Kentucky, Connecticut, Syracuse, Duke and Louisville. Those schools have combined to win 15 of the past 30 NCAA championships.

Next week, the Maui Invitational features No. 6 Duke, No. 10 Memphis and No. 12 Kansas, plus unranked brand names Georgetown and UCLA. December brings a likely 1 vs. 2 matchup when North Carolina and Kentucky play, plus a heated top-10 rivalry game on New Year's Eve between Louisville and Kentucky.

Will college basketball gain from NBA lockout?