No college football game managed to earn a 3.0 overnight during week nine of the season.
Saturday’s Oregon/UCLA and Tennessee/Alabama college football games were the highest rated of the weekend in the metered markets, according to Sports Business Daily, each drawing a 2.8 overnight.
Oregon/UCLA, which aired on ESPN, was up 47% from Mississippi/State Alabama in a later timeslot last year (1.9). The game faced competition from Saturday Night Football on ABC (2.6) and South Carolina’s upset of Missouri on ESPN2 (1.8), to say nothing of the World Series on FOX (8.7).
Tennessee/Alabama, which aired on CBS, declined 39% from last year’s Florida/Georgia clash (4.6), and 22% from the Georgia/Florida game in 2011 (3.6).
Tied for third place was the Penn State/Ohio State “Saturday Night Football” game. Facing the World Series on FOX, the game drew a 2.6 overnight — down 56% from Notre Dame/Oklahoma last year, which also faced the World Series (5.9), and down 52% from regional action featuring Stanford/USC in 2011 (5.4).
FOX also earned a 2.6 overnight for its delayed, abbreviated coverage of the Texas Tech/Oklahoma game — up 100% from Texas Tech/Kansas State last year, and a season-high. The previous season-high on FOX was a 2.4 for the week three Ohio State/Cal game.
Rounding out the top five, regional action on ABC featuring N.C. State/Florida State earned a 2.0 overnight — down 23% from regional coverage both last year and in 2011 (2.6).
(Week 9 overnights from Sports Business Daily, ShowBuzz Daily)
