Brian Kelly‘s final game as Cincinnati head coach drew strong numbers on ABC last Saturday.
Cincinnati/Pittsburgh drew a 4.7 final rating on ABC last Saturday afternoon, up 88% from a 2.6 for Virginia Tech/Boston College (the ACC Championship Game) in a simliar timeslot last year. The 4.7 rating is the highest for an afternoon college football game on ABC since Texas/Oklahoma in October (5.7).
To put the numbers in perspective, Cincinnati/Pittsburgh drew a higher rating than Ohio State/Michigan in the same timeslot two weeks earlier (4.7 to 4.2).
Later Saturday, a Pac-10 battle between Arizona and USC drew a mere 2.2 final rating, down 12% from a 2.5 for USC/UCLA in a similar timeslot last year. The 2.2 rating is tied as the second-lowest of the season for a college football game on ABC, ahead of only Nebraska/Colorado on the day after Thanksgiving (1.7).
The day was capped off with a 7.5 rating for the Big 12 Championship Game, up 36% from last year, and the highest rating for the Big 12 title game since ’00. More details on the ratings for that game can be found here.
