Iron Bowl ratings second best of CFB season

Alabama’s latest scare helped the Iron Bowl to the second-largest audience of the college football season.

Last Saturday’s Alabama-Auburn Iron Bowl averaged a 5.3 rating and 10.37 million viewers on the SEC on CBS, trailing only Ohio State-Michigan on FOX earlier in the day (8.1, 15.89M) as the highest rated and most-watched game of the season. (Additional details on Ohio State-Michigan are available here.)

The Tide’s comeback, four-overtime win — which peaked with 17.38 million viewers — soared 47% in ratings and 56% in viewership from last year’s game between the teams (3.6, 6.66M), but declined 16% and 9% respectively from Auburn’s upset win in 2019 (6.3, 11.43M).

Birmingham turned in a 53.7 rating and 76 share for the game, meaning that more than three-quarters of homes with televisions turned on were watching the game in the average minute.

While “The Game” and the Iron Bowl generated most of the headlines, they were not the only rivalry games to score over the holiday weekend. The Oklahoma-Oklahoma State “Bedlam” game averaged a 3.5 and 6.49 million on ABC’s Saturday Night Football — the largest audience for that rivalry since 2013 (7.3M). Ratings increased 52% and viewership 58% from last year’s game between the teams, which took place the week prior to Thanksgiving (2.3, 4.10M).

In addition, the Thanksgiving night “Egg Bowl” between Mississippi and Mississippi State posted its top audience in four years with a 1.0 and 2.06 million viewers on ESPN; North Carolina-NC State posted its largest audience in six years the following night, also on ESPN (1.45, 2.68M); and — as previously noted — Wisconsin-Minnesota scored its largest audience in more than a decade Saturday on FOX (2.6, 5.05M).

Even some lesser rivalries hit highs. Missouri-Arkansas scored its largest audience since 2014 with a 1.7 and 2.96 million on CBS and Iowa-Nebraska drew its largest audience since 2018 with 1.95 million viewers on BTN, both on Black Friday.

Penn State-Michigan State failed to hit a multi-year high, but its 2.0 rating and 3.89 million viewers on ABC Saturday comfortably topped last year’s December meeting between the teams (1.6, 2.54M).

On the other end of the spectrum, a number of rivalry games posted their smallest audiences in years — an 11-year low for Notre Dame-Stanford on FOX (1.4, 2.43M); at least a ten-year low for Florida State-Florida on ESPN (0.85, 1.63M); a seven-year low for Washington State-Washington on FS1 (0.6, 1.21M); a six-year low for Georgia-Georgia Tech on ABC (1.1, 1.95M); and a three-year low for Oregon-Oregon State on ESPN (0.7, 1.34M).

Outside of the rivalry games, FOX drew a 1.6 and 2.86 million for Kansas State-Texas on Black Friday, up modestly from Nebraska-Iowa last year (1.5, 2.69M) but down from Texas Tech-Texas in ’19 (1.8, 2.89M). Cincinnati-ECU had a 1.3 and 2.39 million on ABC the same day, down a sharp 63% in ratings and 61% in viewership from Notre Dame-North Carolina last year (3.5, 6.08M) and down 15% and 5% respectively from Cincinnati-Memphis in ’19 (1.5, 2.51).