Tell Your Friends that Pitt Volleyball is on ESPN

Sunday, September 28 was a great day for the Pitt Volleyball program.

The Panthers completed back-to-back wins over SMU in front of 5,806 fans at the Petersen Events Center – the 6th-largest crowd in program history, and the largest Sunday crowd Pitt Volleyball has ever drawn. It represented a strong start to the ACC schedule, a conference Pitt hopes to dominate in order to secure home-court advantage in the NCAA Tournament.

One trouble spot, though: A mere 59,000 viewers were watching on ESPN – the ESPN, no additional numbers or letters. 59,000. Across the nation. That's... a sad number for a network that many sports fans will just flip on by default.

Granted, it was a 3 PM start on a football Sunday. But neither the Steelers (who played that morning) or the Cowboys (who played that night) were in action. And most of ESPN's programming moves to counter-program the NFL can at least draw six figures.

It was also by far the lowest viewership of the nine volleyball matches that have aired on 'big' ESPN this season – the 2nd-lowest was Illinois vs. Louisville on Sept. 7 with 106,000 viewers.

(All of these numbers, by the way, come courtesy of the fine work of an 'avid' VolleyTalk poster. Here's the link to their ratings thread, but do not stare directly into VolleyTalk – it will surely drive you mad.)

With Pitt eyeing up two more ESPN matches here in October – this Sunday at 3 PM vs. Florida State and next Sunday vs. rival Louisville on October 19 at 1 PM – I must implore you to tell your friends that Pitt Volleyball is easily accessible on their (or their local sports bar's) television.

You might be asking...

Does this really matter? Isn't this fretting about TV ratings a 'Please Like My Sport' complaint a la hockey fans?

But there's something important here. Ratings influence placement. I've said online before I think it's silly for NBA or NFL fans to parse TV ratings – your sport will still get prominent national TV coverage no matter what. It's different for sports on the fringe like college volleyball.

A few years ago, the only way for a school like Pitt to get on ESPN was to advance to the Final Four. Linear television programmers don't tend to like sporting events that could last anywhere between 1 hour, 15 minutes to a full 3 hours, particularly if they don't bring in many eyeballs.

Now volleyball's leap in popularity has become impossible for the network executives to ignore – with a young, female-leaning audience and productions that cost much less to staff than football. Last year, ESPN's ratings were up 21% in the regular season and 41% in the tournament, and they're on track to rise again in 2025.

The Panthers have a total of five regular-season matches on the flagship ESPN channel this season. That's a huge boost in visibility for a program and for the young athletes who have earned it, but that momentum will only keep rolling if the numbers warrant a continued investment of precious airtime.

ESPN has found a golden egg it didn't expect with women's basketball, and I'm sure they're hoping to repeat it with volleyball – and seeking the top programs to showcase.

Here's the good news: match against SMU aside, Pitt has largely held its own in the ratings game with the help of some big-name state universities:

• Aug. 22 – Pitt vs. Nebraska – 771,000 (FOX)
• Aug. 24 – Pitt vs. Florida – 525,000 (ESPN)
• Aug. 31 – TCU vs. Pitt – 108,000 (FS1)
• Sept. 1 – ASU vs. Pitt – 80,000 (FS1)
• Sept. 10 – Pitt vs. Kentucky – 238,000 (ESPN)
• Sept. 17 – Pitt vs. Penn State – 86,000 (BTN)
• Sept. 28 – SMU vs. Pitt – 59,000 (ESPN)

It wasn't that long ago that 525,000 viewers would've shattered ESPN's viewership record for a regular-season volleyball match. So the overall numbers remain impressive. An average of 267,000 viewers per match (even as that average is skewed by big pre-football-season numbers) puts Pitt in a good spot.

But ohhhh that 59,000. Eventually Pitt will need to draw viewers without a big-name opponent on the other side of the net.

A Place You Can Watch

My other concern is as simple as this: I think it's important for fans to be able to see their team on real television. Not everybody has ACCNX access – especially Pitt fans in other parts of the country.

As it stands, 11 of Pitt's final 16 matches of the season are streaming-only on ACCNX. That's understandable for most of the matches. You won't get many viewers for... let's say... a Halloween night match against currently 4-11 Duke, a team that lost a match to Cleveland State last month.

But other matches ought to see better placement as a showcase for elite volleyball.

On Friday, November 14, Pitt will be out west to play Stanford in a likely Top 10 matchup that could be crucial in the ACC race. For now, the match is consigned to the web on ACCNX. A mix of football and basketball games (including the dreaded 9 PM Eastern tip-off time for North Carolina Central at UNC men's hoops on ACC Network) will occupy the linear space.

I would advocate for Pitt-Stanford volleyball to be moved onto one of ESPN's many channels. But advocacy only goes so far. Numbers talk. Let's make 'em rise.

That takes us back to the ESPN matches at hand. While I don't delude myself into thinking many Pittsburgh sports fans will flip away from the Browns at Steelers game to watch Pitt Volleyball (likely) wax Florida State, the following week's battle against Louisville is appointment viewing.

So: Sunday, October 19 – 1 PM Eastern – ESPN

Grab a second screen for your RedZone viewing if you must, but you won't want to miss Pitt go after some Final Four revenge upon their return to Derby City. Beating your arch-rivals? On their court? In front of a national TV audience? That's the kind of statement you want to make with big viewership as an exclamation point.