The National Basketball Association has long been the pinnacle of entertainment for hoops fans, but the tides are turning in a major way.
From rowdy student sections to the mania of March Madness, college basketball is capturing the viewership numbers that the NBA is missing out on. Despite an eventful 2025 NBA season, college basketball is continuously rising, all while Adam Silver’s coveted professional league is coming up short year after year.
The numbers
According to the College Basketball Report, six of the top seven most-viewed basketball games in 2025 were between college teams. Outside of game seven of the NBA Finals, each of these top-viewed games was part of the NCAA’s March Madness bracket.
March Madness is a 68-team single-elimination tournament at the end of every college basketball season. This tournament, crowned by one winner, provides a game-seven type of energy for each of the 67 matchups. This competitive environment is so palpable that fans from across the country tune in to watch these collegiate athletes compete on the highest stage.
Silver’s NBA is missing out on these win-or-go-home games that are beloved by fans. Throughout the 2025 NBA playoffs, four of the fifteen series went to game seven. With long, drawn-out series, fans often get bored of seeing the same matchups over and over. Even when these matchups go the distance and a game seven is forced, the fans aren’t tuning in.
A sweet sixteen game between Illinois and Kentucky produced a higher viewership than any non-finals NBA game this season by over one million consumers. So, what is wrong with the NBA?
Explanations
The NBA has three glaring issues tanking ratings: effort, drama and format.
Part of what creates such a competitive environment in college athletics is players fighting to make it to a professional league. Once a player has been drafted and signed to a long-term multimillion-dollar contract, motivation inevitably declines. While the end goal of all NBA players is winning a championship ring, signing a safe contract is essential. If players get severely injured, there are no guarantees of what may happen next, thus causing them to tone down their effort levels.
On top of the problem with motivation, or lack thereof, the NBA tends to be filled with drama, and not the good kind. Incidents of superstar players sitting out games, managers tanking to get better draft picks and NBA lotteries potentially being rigged are turning off fans from putting their time and money into the league.
On top of these issues, the NBA playoff format has become unappealing to many. With the recent addition of two playoff teams in each conference, the regular season has become devalued. When teams and players can consistently “take games off” with little to no consequences, ticket holders become robbed of their money.
Imagine buying a ticket to watch the Los Angeles Lakers take on the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City and minutes before tip-off, it is announced that LeBron James won’t be playing tonight because he is resting. This is a consistently recurring problem in today’s NBA, and fans are furious.
What will happen
Unless changes are made soon, the NBA will continue to tank. Fans are realizing that the effort and competitive levels of college basketball games have become superior to that of their neighboring league, and ratings have indicated so.
While there isn’t a simple adjustment that can turn the tide in favor of the NBA, their talent levels will always be higher than those in college. If Silver can bottle that talent and create a competitive environment for his players, another shift may be in order soon.
