Durham Dynamos as Duke Remains America's Favorite College Basketball Team

NEW YORK, March 26, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Well, no one won the Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge. As top seeds fell and two 11 seeds made it to the Sweet Sixteen, the Madness that is March is underway. While they may have lost in the first round to Mercer, the 14 seed, for the fifth year in a row the Duke Blue Devils are America's Favorite Men's College Basketball team. And, after they lost in the round of 32, Duke's main rivals, the UNC Tar Heels, are again number two this year. Making a huge leap up from the 10^th spot on the list last year to the 3^rd position this year are the Kentucky Wildcats, who happen to be playing in the Sweet Sixteen.

Rounding out the top five favorite college basketball teams are Ohio State, claiming the number 4 spot after being number 3 last year, and Michigan, who also moved down one spot this year from number 4 to number 5.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll® of 2,234 adults, of whom 574 follow college basketball, surveyed online between March 12 and 17, 2014. (Full results, including data tables, available here)

Returning to the top ten this year after a one year absence are the Orange from Syracuse at number 6; 'Cuse is followed by UCLA, which dropped 2 spots and sits at number 7. The rest of the list are all returning or new, with Connecticut returning after a one year absence at number 8. The list ends in a 3-way tie for 9^th between Michigan State and Wisconsin, returning after one- and two-year absences, and Wichita State, which debuts on the top ten list after a very impressive 34-0 season.

Four teams dropped off the favorite men's college basketball team top ten this year: Gonzaga, which was number 6, Illinois, which was number 7, Georgetown, which was number 8, and Texas, which was number 9.

Women's College Basketball
Connecticut remains America's Favorite Women's College Basketball team this year, while Tennessee remains in the second spot and Baylor repeats at number three. Rounding out the top five are the state rivals, with Duke at number 4, returning after a one year absence, and UNC at number five, down one from a tie for 4^th last year.  Returning to the list for the first time since 2010 is Ohio State at number 6, followed by Michigan State at number 7, returning after a two year absence. Dropping two spots to number 8 is Stanford, and then returning to the list after a 4 year absence is Illinois at number 9. There is a three way tie at the number 10 spot: Notre Dame, dropping from a tie for 4^th, Kentucky, dropping from 7^th and Maryland, which was number 10 last year.

Dropping off the women's top ten are Rutgers (was number 8) and Texas (was number 9).

NCAA Tournament Winners
As the Sweet Sixteen awaits, one in five who follow college basketball (18%) say Florida will be the men's NCAA champion this year, a feat still possible as they won in the early rounds. One in ten each believed Wichita State (11%) and Duke (9%) would be the champions, while 5% said Syracuse. Alas, none of those teams are still in contention.

To see other recent Harris Polls, please visit the Harris Poll News Room.

Want Harris Polls delivered direct to your inbox? Click here!

Methodology
This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between March 12 and 17, 2014 among 2,234 adults (aged 18 and over) of whom 574 follow college basketball. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, The Harris Poll avoids the words "margin of error" as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Poll surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in our panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

The results of this Harris Poll may not be used in advertising, marketing or promotion without the prior written permission of The Harris Poll.

Product and brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

The Harris Poll^® #29, March 26, 2014 
By Regina A. Corso, SVP, The Harris Poll and Public Relations Research

About Nielsen & The Harris Poll
On February 3, 2014, Nielsen acquired Harris Interactive and The Harris Poll.  Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence and mobile measurement. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100517/NY06256LOGO

Press Contact:
Corporate Communications
The Harris Poll
212-539-9600
[email protected] 

SOURCE The Harris Poll