Ratings predictions for Saturday’s Miami-Florida college football game, the NFL preseason, Yankees-Dodgers, and more. How high will ratings go for a rare marquee matchup in “week zero” of the season?
CFB: Miami-#8 Florida (7p Sat ESPN)
The so-called “week zero” of the college football season typically features low-wattage teams, but this year is a notable exception. At ESPN’s request, Miami and Florida moved up their scheduled meeting from week one to this weekend, giving the network a marquee non-conference matchup to kick off its season-long observation of college football’s 150th anniversary.
With no competing games on the schedule Saturday night, expect Miami-Florida to deliver a strong rating. Last year, there were only two regular season games that faced no competition — Virginia Tech-FSU on Labor Day (3.4) and Miami-LSU on the night before Labor Day (3.8). Saturday’s game should clock in a bit lower. Prediction: 2.8.
NFL preseason: Steelers-Titans (8p Sun NBC)
NFL preseason ratings have not been so hot this year, and Sunday’s Steelers-Titans game seems unlikely to buck the trend. The same Sunday night window last year featured the Cowboys and had a 4.4 rating. Two years ago, 49ers-Vikings had a 4.5. Prediction: 3.6.
MLB: Yankees-Dodgers (7p Sun ESPN)
There are not a lot of marquee matchups in a Major League Baseball regular season. Outside of Yankees-Red Sox, you have to look to interleague if you want to move the needle before October. This weekend provides a rare exception. Yankees-Dodgers is one of sports’ classic rivalries, and with the teams owning the top two records in baseball, a potential World Series preview as well. The highest MLB rating on cable this season is a 1.5, set by two Yankees-Red Sox games. Prediction: 1.6.
LLWS World Championship (3p Sun ABC)
On a weekend featuring Yankees-Dodgers, the highest rated baseball game could well be Sunday’s Little League World Series final. Last year’s title game averaged a 2.1 rating, the highest since 2015, and a rebound after record-lows the previous two years. Will we see a repeat performance this year? Prediction: 1.9.
PGA Tour: final round of The Tour Championship (1:30p Sun NBC)
The only question entering The Tour Championship is just how far the ratings will fall. Last year, when Tiger Woods won the event to end a five-year winless streak, the final round averaged a record-high 3.7 rating. Woods is not in the field this time around, making it a lock that the numbers will crater.
With that said, there is a strong chance ratings will increase over two years ago, when the final round had a mere 1.4. Instead of facing NFL regular season games as in previous years, Sunday’s play has zero significant competition. The schedule change benefited the previous week’s BMW Championship, which saw its Sunday rating soar 65% over 2017. Expect similar results this weekend. Prediction: 2.0.
Previous results
— British Open final round. Prediction: 2.8; result: 2.5
— UFC on ESPN 4. Prediction: 0.6; result: 0.6
— MLB: Nationals-Braves. Prediction: 0.8; result: 0.8
— NASCAR Cup Series: New Hampshire. Prediction: 1.5; result: 1.7
— NWSL: Chicago-North Carolina. Prediction: 0.22; result: 0.1
