Arguably the most compelling game of the bowl season attracted ESPN’s largest audience outside of the New Year’s Six.
Saturday’s TCU/Oregon Alamo Bowl scored 7.4 million viewers on ESPN, up 32% from UCLA/Kansas State last year (5.6M) but down 2% from Oregon/Texas two seasons ago (7.5M). Ratings were not immediately available.
Excluding the New Year’s Six, the Horned Frogs’ comeback win earned the largest audience of the bowl season on ESPN (28 telecasts). The Liberty Bowl, which took place earlier in the day, ranks second (7.0M). The Alamo Bowl was also just the ninth of those 28 telecasts to post a year-over-year increase.
Saturday’s game marked the fourth time in the past ten seasons that the Alamo Bowl has crossed the seven million viewer threshold, joining Oregon/Texas in 2013, Texas Tech/Michigan State in January 2010 (7.82M) and Texas/Iowa in 2006 (7.79M). While Alamo Bowl organizers have previously claimed more than eight million viewers for the game — notably in 2007, when they announced 8.83 million — it has never actually hit that mark.
(Sat. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily)
