Pitting top-five teams in a rematch of one of the best games all season, the series finale of Pac-12 football delivered in the ratings for ABC.
Friday’s Washington-Oregon Pac-12 Championship Game averaged 9.2 million viewers on ABC, per Nielsen fast-nationals — up 47% from last year and the largest audience ever for the Pac-12 title game (dates back to 2011). No other Pac-12 title game had even managed seven million. (Final national figures will be available Tuesday.)
The Huskies’ win, which peaked with 11.1 million viewers, trails only Colorado-Oregon in September (10.03M) as the most-watched Pac-12 intra-conference game of any kind in at least 15 years.
It was the ninth college football game this season to average at least nine million viewers, nearly doubling the same point last season (five). Of the 18 most-watched games so far this season, four were Pac-12 conference games — matching the SEC as the most of any conference.
Both Washington and Oregon are moving to the Big Ten after this season, just two of ten schools involved a mass exodus from the Pac-12. Only Oregon State and Washington State will remain in what will be a two-team league next season, meaning that for all intents and purposes Friday’s game was the last in Pac-12 history.
(Numbers from ESPN PR)
