A pair of marquee teams that were both in the playoff conversation lifted Cotton Bowl ratings to a four-year high.
Friday’s Ohio State-USC Cotton Bowl scored a 5.3 rating and 9.5 million viewers on ESPN, per Nielsen fast-nationals — up 71% in ratings and 70% in viewership from last season (Wisconsin-WMU: 3.1, 5.6M), when the game took place at 1 PM ET on New Year’s Day. Figures include TV and streaming numbers.
Excluding the 2014-15 season, when it served as a College Football Playoff semifinal, Ohio State’s win ranks as the highest rated and most-watched Cotton Bowl since Texas A&M-Oklahoma on FOX in 2013 (7.2, 11.9M).
Overall, this year’s Cotton Bowl trails only 2013 and 2011 (LSU-Texas A&M: 5.8, 10.0M) as the highest rated and most-watched since 1998.
Though high for the Cotton Bowl, Ohio State-USC declined 15% in ratings and 17% in viewership from last year’s Michigan-Florida State Orange Bowl, which aired in the same window (6.2, 11.5M). It ranks among the ten lowest rated and least-watched New Year’s Six or BCS bowl games (94 telecasts) and is dead last among the 23 to involve either Ohio State or USC.
It also trailed the teams’ previous meeting, a September 2009 matchup on ESPN that had a 6.3 and 10.6 million.
Ohio produced the top four markets, Columbus (43.3), Dayton (23.9), Cleveland (21.0) and Cincinnati (13.5). Birmingham, Ala., was the top neutral market with a 12.6. No California market ranked in the top ten.
[Fri. numbers from ESPN]
