FOX scored its largest college football audience of the season for last week’s Pac-12 Championship Game.
Last Friday’s Oregon/Arizona Pac-12 title game drew a 3.7 final rating and 6.0 million viewers on FOX, up 311% in ratings and 314% in viewership from Stanford/Arizona State on ESPN last year, which aired on a Saturday night (0.9, 1.5M), and up 23% in both measures from Stanford/UCLA on FOX in 2011 (3.0, 4.9M).
The Ducks’ blowout win ranks as the highest rated and most-watched Pac-12 Championship Game (four telecasts dating back to 2011), topping the previous high set in 2012. It also earned the season’s highest college football rating on FOX.
Shifting to Saturday, the Ohio State/Wisconsin Big Ten Championship Game drew a 3.5 and 6.1 million viewers — down 56% in ratings and viewership from Michigan State/Ohio State last year (7.9, 13.9M) but up 21% and 20%, respectively, from Wisconsin/Nebraska in 2012 (2.9, 5.1M).
Despite the big decline, the Buckeyes’ 59-0 shutout drew the season’s largest audience on FOX.
Rounding out the weekend’s action, Oklahoma/Oklahoma State drew a 0.7 and 1.1 million on Fox Sports 1 opposite the SEC Championship Game. In the comparable window last year, the FOX broadcast network drew a 2.3 and 3.7 million for Texas/Baylor. The ‘Bedlam’ game was the eighth of the season on FS1 to top the million viewer mark, compared to six such games last year.
(Wknd. numbers from Sports Business Daily, Awful Announcing)
