Big 12 Championship ratings were the best for the conference in four years.
Saturday’s Oklahoma-TCU Big 12 Championship Game earned a 3.8 rating and 5.9 million viewers on FOX, per Nielsen fast-nationals, up 23% from Oklahoma-Oklahoma State in the same window last year (3.1, 4.8M). Compared to the previous Big 12 title game in 2010, Oklahoma-Nebraska, ratings fell 28% from a 5.3 and viewership 34% from 9.0 million. That game aired in primetime on ABC.
Not counting regional windows, the Sooners’ win delivered the largest audience for a Big 12 intra-conference game in four years — since the 2013 Oklahoma-Oklahoma State “Bedlam” game (7.3M). It tied the highest rating over that span, matching a 2015 Oklahoma-Baylor game on ABC.
Keep in mind some out-of-conference games, including Oklahoma-Ohio State on ABC earlier this season (4.6, 8.1M), have done better.
For the season, the Big 12 title game delivered the second-largest Noon ET audience on any network. Ohio State-Michigan on FOX the previous week holds the top spot (6.1, 10.5M).
Adding in the 79,000 streaming viewers on Fox Sports GO, the Sooners’ win had 6.0 million viewers.
Oklahoma City topped all markets with a 32.4 rating, followed by Tulsa (27.5). Birmingham (14.7) and Columbus, Ohio (10.6) followed, no doubt rooting for a TCU upset. Dallas-Ft. Worth rounded out the top five (10.2).
[Sat. numbers from Fox Sports PR]
