The SEC ruled the ratings on a wild college football weekend, and that is not even counting the most memorable game of the weekend.
The “SEC on ABC” delivered three of the weekend’s top five Nielsen-measured college football audiences, including the top two, as Arkansas’ primetime upset of Tennessee delivered 5.29 million viewers, Auburn-Georgia scored 4.93 million and Texas A&M’s Noon ET upset of Missouri drew 3.27 million.
Tennessee-Arkansas, which peaked with 6.8 million viewers, increased 3% from last year (Notre Dame-Louisville) and gave ABC the weekend’s top college football audience for the fourth time in six weeks.
Georgia’s rout of Auburn, which peaked with 5.4 million, surged 63 percent from ABC’s equivalent window last year (Virginia Tech-FSU: 3.02M) — but was no match for the comparable edition of the “SEC on CBS” (Alabama-Texas A&M: 7.23M). As has been noted, the SEC is no longer setting aside its best games for the 3:30 PM ET window, nor is it keeping that window exclusive to broadcast television, with ESPN chipping in 1.23 million for a competing Mississippi-South Carolina game.
Missouri-Texas A&M, which peaked with 3.6 million, actually declined 58% from last year — but the year-ago window was the Oklahoma-Texas Red River Rivalry (7.87M).
The most notable on-field result was then-#1 Alabama’s upset loss to Vanderbilt, but that game aired on SEC Network, which is not Nielsen rated. ESPN uses ComScore to measure viewership on SEC Network and those figures will not be available for weeks. In the meantime, ESPN said Tuesday that its streaming audience for Vanderbilt’s win was the third-best ever for SEC Network, trailing only a seven-overtime Texas A&M-LSU game in 2018 and a Georgia-Missouri contest in 2022.
The top non-SEC game of the weekend was Iowa-Ohio State with 4.46 million viewers on CBS — down from the aforementioned Alabama-Texas A&M game a year ago. CBS is not disclosing viewership figures for any of its programming, as its contract with Nielsen has expired, however the network continues to be measured by Nielsen and its numbers reported by industry publications.
In fourth place, Washington’s upset of Michigan — a rematch of January’s national championship — averaged 4.04 million on NBC, up 32% from Michigan-Minnesota a year ago (3.06M).
Further down the dial, FOX topped out at 2.84 million for Michigan State-Oregon on Friday night, marking the third time in four weeks that the FOX Friday night series has taken top honors on the night. (ESPN’s Houston-TCU game had 1.51 million.) The Friday night game actually outdrew UCLA-Penn State on “Big Noon Saturday” — which at 2.75 million declined 39% from Maryland-Ohio State last year (4.51M).
ESPN topped out at 1.92 million for Miami’s late-night comeback win over Cal, actually down 25% from Arizona-USC last year (2.55M). Clemson-Florida State led in with 1.41 million, down 56% from last year’s Kentucky-Georgia game (3.19M).
