For the fifth straight week, ESPN’s top college football game featured at a team from the SEC.
Saturday’s Arkansas/Alabama college football game drew a 2.9 final rating and 4.8 million viewers on ESPN, up 38% in ratings and 29% in viewership from LSU/Auburn last year (2.1, 3.7M) and up 123% and 116%, respectively, from LSU/Mississippi State in 2013 (1.3, 2.2M).
Alabama’s win was the top college football game of the week on cable, marking the fifth straight week that the top such game has involved an SEC team. Head-to-head, the game comfortably topped Miami/Florida State on ABC (2.3, 3.5M) and TCU/Kansas State on FOX (1.8, 2.8M).
The California/Utah nightcap, the site of ESPN’s College Gameday pregame show, drew a 1.8 and 2.8 million — up 39% in ratings and viewership from Utah/UCLA last year (1.3, 2.0M) and up 13% and 10%, respectively, from Washington/Stanford in 2013 (1.6, 2.6M).
Shifting to the afternoon, the rescheduled LSU/South Carolina game had 2.6 million viewers on ESPN. There were no comparable games last year or in 2013 due to NASCAR coverage. The Noon ET Indiana/Penn State game, which moved up from ESPN2 to ESPN, drew 1.5 million — down 63% from Texas A&M/Mississippi State last year (4.1M) and down a third from Maryland/Florida State in 2013 (2.3M).
Elsewhere on the ESPN networks, Oklahoma State/West Virginia was ESPN2’s top draw with 1.2 million viewers Saturday night — up 3% from Miami/Georgia Tech last year (1.1M) but down 25% from Arkansas/Florida in 2013 (1.6M). ESPNU topped out at 273,000 for ECU/BYU, down 43% from Texas Tech/Kansas State last year (480K) and down 71% from Mississippi/Auburn in 2013 (943K).
(Wknd. numbers from Sports TV Ratings)
