The Iron Bowl tied ESPN’s best-ever overnight rating for regular season college football.
The Auburn/Alabama Iron Bowl drew a 7.2 overnight rating on ESPN Saturday night, up 100% from Texas A&M/Missouri last year (3.6) and tied as the highest regular season college football overnight ever on ESPN. USC/Ohio State drew the same number in September 2009.
The 7.2 is the second-highest of the college football season on any network, trailing only Notre Dame/Florida State in October (8.5). Alabama has now played in three of the season’s five highest rated games in the metered markets.
Excluding conference championship games, the 7.2 also ranks as the top SEC overnight since last year’s Iron Bowl on broadcast network CBS (8.6) — the so-called ‘Kick Six’ game. The previous high for an SEC game this season was a 6.6 for Mississippi State/Alabama on CBS a week earlier.
As one could expect, Auburn/Alabama was the week’s top college football draw. An SEC team has been featured in the week’s top game in 10 of 14 weeks this season.
Saturday’s telecast marked the first time since 2007 that the Iron Bowl aired on cable. CBS opted to air the Mississippi State/Mississippi Egg Bowl this year, ending a streak of six straight seasons carrying Auburn/Alabama.
(Sat. overnights from Sports Business Daily)
