The last time Arizona played a regular-season game shown solely on a streaming-only platform, it was probably just as well for the Wildcats.
The fewer witnesses of their 0-3 slide through the 2017-18 Battle 4 Atlantis, the better for them.
Entering Thanksgiving week in the Bahamas, where eventual No. 1 NBA pick Deandre Ayton was supposed to enjoy a homecoming, the Wildcats were ranked No. 2 and only firmly scheduled to play their first game on ESPN3. A win over North Carolina State in their opener would move them on to ESPN2.
But they lost the opener, 90-84 to North Carolina State. Then they lost a consolation bracket game the next day to SMU.
And the day after that, the deflated Wildcats lost by 25 points to Purdue.
They never moved off the ESPN3 streams, though people did tend to notice what happened anyway. Upon returning home, the Wildcats became the first team in 31 years to drop completely out of the AP Top 25 poll from the No. 2 spot.
The last time the Arizona men’s basketball program played a matchup of consequence on on a streaming-only broadcast, the Wildcats faced Purdue in 2017 — just like they will this weekend. On Nov. 24, 2017, Purdue center Isaac Haas (44) wins the tip-off over Arizona forward Deandre Ayton (13) during the 2017 Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in Paradise Island, Bahamas.
“We came here the No. 2 ranked team. … but now it’s different for us,” then-coach Sean Miller said after the Wildcats lost 89-64 to Purdue. “I don’t know if everybody will look at us as the same team that maybe they looked at before.”
This Saturday, coincidentally, the Wildcats will face the Boilermakers for the first time since that Bahamian booby prize game, and on a streaming-only broadcast yet again. But the circumstances are different: The Wildcats are ranked No. 1, Purdue is ranked No. 3, and the coverage will be on Peacock, NBC’s stand-alone streaming service.
Such an arrangement might appear less than ideal for college basketball as a whole, having a rare Top 3 matchup stuffed away from traditional over-the-air, cable or satellite television — or even away from streaming packages that act and feel like cable TV. And, if nothing else, it might be an unexpected surprise for Arizona fans.
UA even posted a notice on its website that warned fans that they will need Peacock to see the game — but also reminded those who only subscribe for Saturday’s game with no intent of keeping the service to “please remember to cancel your subscription after the game,” because the default setting will be to renew it.
Purdue center Zach Edey celebrates after scoring during the first half of Saturday's game against Alabama in Toronto.
But the platform for Saturday’s game isn’t tiny. Peacock now has 30 million subscribers, according to what Comcast president Mike Cavanagh said during a conference last week. Part of the NBCUniversal division owned by Comcast, Peacock is available for $5.99 a month, or $11.99 for a mostly ad-free tier, while verified students can get it for $1.99.
The key is that fans can buy Peacock alone. That option hasn’t existed with the Pac-12 Network, whose availability has always been limited to those who buy cable/satellite/streaming packages because of how the conference structured its rights deals.
Peacock started carrying Big Ten football and basketball games this fall as part of a new media rights agreement with CBS, Fox, and NBC that the conference announced in August 2022.
Among other features of the deal, NBC added a “Big Ten Saturday Night” football game that it simulcasts on Peacock, while the direct-to-consumer streaming service was initially expected to carry eight regular-season football games and 47 regular-season men’s basketball games exclusively.
Arizona’s Kylan Boswell (4) gets by Wisconsin’s Chucky Hepburn (23) on his way to the net during the Wildcats' blowout win over the Badgers Sunday at McKale Center. No. 1 Arizona will face a second consecutive Big Ten team this weekend when it takes on No. 3 Purdue Saturday in Indianapolis.
Of the 12 nonconference men’s basketball games the Big Ten announced would be carried only on Peacock this season, four involve high-major opponents. Peacock already showed Texas A&M at Ohio State and Tennessee at Wisconsin on Nov. 10, plus Nebraska against Oregon State at Sioux Falls, S.D., on Nov. 18, and now will carry Saturday’s Purdue-Arizona game in Indianapolis.
“We are incredibly excited to be partnering with ... the Big Ten Conference on this robust package of sports,” NBC Sports chairman Pete Bevacqua said in a statement when the deal was announced in August 2022, adding that “with the rights to a wide range of Big Ten events, Peacock and NBC Sports will be a year-round destination for the best in college sports.”
No ratings for Peacock’s Big Ten basketball games have been available so far, according to Sports Media Watch, since the service is not Nielsen-rated. A spokesman for NBCUniversal said Peacock does not have viewership information for specific events to share.
Arizona Basketball Press Conference | Tommy Lloyd | postgame after win over Wisconsin | Dec. 9, 2023 (Arizona Wildcats YouTube)
