Jon Rothstein: ‘The 2025 Final Four did not disappoint’

Jon Rothstein had a message Tuesday for those who have criticized this year’s NCAA Tournament for lacking upsets and Cinderellas.

The CBS Sports college basketball insider posted a video on X early Tuesday sharing his enthusiasm for the Final Four.

“The 2025 Final Four did not disappoint,” Rothstein said. “I think there was a narrative throughout the NCAA Tournament that this tournament lacked a little flavor … was a little disappointing, that this tournament did not live up to the billing of what past NCAA Tournaments have (offered).

“This is what I want to say to that … I’ve been doing this now about 20 years. I have never covered a Final Four with three games as good as the ones we just saw in San Antonio. And now you start to dissect things a little more, and you look at what happened game by game. Florida was trailing Auburn at the half on Saturday. … Florida won the game. Houston was down and, in the depths of despair on Saturday against Duke, came back and had one of the most epic comebacks that we have seen in the history of the Final Four.

“And then tonight, Florida, where its star player, Walter Clayton Jr. … was struggling against Houston for the majority of 35 minutes, found the way to be a little more resilient and come back to give the Gators their first national championship since Billy Donovan won the second installment of back-to-back titles in 2007.”

This might have been the best Final Four ever in terms of the quality of the three games. pic.twitter.com/KqtCTNpil2

— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) April 8, 2025

Rothstein isn’t the only one who loved this year’s tournament. The tournament’s opening weekend drew the best ratings in 32 years. Saturday’s semifinal games averaged 15.3 million viewers, up 19% over last year and making it the most-watched Final Four since 2017.

Yet there have been critics. Many fans were disappointed that there were fewer upsets in this tournament. Stephen A. Smith even said that the lack of March Madness upsets supposedly brought about by NIL and the transfer portal will be the “death” of college basketball.

Rothstein points to the Gators’ resilience in rallying from big deficits in their final three tournament games, which made this such a great Final Four.

“I want to make this really, really clear. I have not seen in my lifetime a Final Four that was better in terms of the quality of the three games than the Final Four that we just witnessed. … That starts and is directly related to the national champion Florida Gators.”