Some of the viewership differences between the bowls and the tournament can be attributed to scheduling, matchups and networks carrying games. It’s easier to find an audience in prime time than in the afternoon. ESPN is more of a sports destination than truTV, which had some of the tournament’s least-watched games. ESPN made it easy for some of the bowls to be seen by wide audiences. Including the playoff games, ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC carried 38 bowls last season. Seven were packed into New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Some universities that send teams to bowl games and the basketball tournament are historically stronger at football than basketball. Mississippi, which is known for its football team, drew an audience of 984,000 when it lost to Xavier in basketball last Thursday afternoon. But when Ole Miss was trampled by Texas Christian in the Peach Bowl, five million watched. On the flip side, North Carolina, with its five national titles in men’s basketball, had more viewers for its first two tournament games than it did when its football team lost to Rutgers in the Quick Lane Bowl.

Oregon is an illustration of the difference in attention a great football program receives over a less renowned but pretty good basketball team. The Ducks’ win over Florida State in the Rose Bowl was seen by a little more than 28 million viewers — an audience about eight times bigger than the one that tuned in for the basketball team’s loss to Wisconsin in prime time on Sunday.

After beating Texas Southern in front of a meager afternoon audience, Arizona demonstrated that having a better opponent in a better slot on a broadcast network could lead to an audience increase. Arizona drew 8.3 million viewers for its 73-58 win over Ohio State, a broadcast that began late Saturday afternoon on CBS. That total exceeded the 7.4 million who watched the Wildcats lose to Boise State on New Year’s Eve in the Fiesta Bowl.

And state bragging rights can turn into a television magnet for fans nationally. Take Wichita State’s 78-65 upset of Kansas that tipped off around 5 p.m. on Sunday. The game attracted 9.9 million viewers — the most for any tournament game, according to available data. Kansas, a state with a population of 2.9 million, cannot be responsible for all those viewers.