Avoiding NFL competition helped the FCS title game to a five-year high.
Monday’s North Dakota State-Montana State FCS National Championship averaged a 1.3 rating and 2.41 million viewers on ESPN, marking the highest rated and most-watched FCS title game since January 2020, when coverage aired in an unopposed Saturday afternoon window on ABC (1.8, 2.69M). Of the four intervening title games, two faced the NFL, one aired on ESPN2 and one took place in May due to COVID-related delays.
Overall, it was the most-watched FCS football game since the 2022 Celebration Bowl between North Carolina Central and Jackson State (2.42M).
Ratings and viewership more-than-doubled last year, when the title game aired in a Sunday afternoon window opposite NFL games (South Dakota State-Montana: 0.6, 1.04M).
The Bison’s win ranks fifth among collegiate national championship games over the past year, behind the title games of FBS football (Michigan-Washington: 25.1M), women’s basketball (Iowa-South Carolina: 18.9M), men’s basketball (UConn-Purdue: 14.8M) and baseball (Tennessee-Texas A&M Game 3: 3.3M).
It outdrew the championship-deciding game of the Women’s College World Series (Oklahoma-Texas Game 2: 2.0M) and the recent college volleyball title match (Penn State-Louisville: 1.6M), the latter of which faced the NFL.
The previous night, the Mount Union-North Central Stagg Bowl (the Division III National Championship) averaged a 0.13 and 222,000 — the same audience as last year on ESPNU. The move from Friday night to Sunday opposite the NFL canceled out any benefit from moving up from ESPNU to ESPN.
As for FBS football, Friday’s Minnesota-Virginia Tech Duke’s Mayo Bowl averaged a 1.8 and 3.38 million on ESPN — down from last year, when the game took place before New Year’s Day (West Virginia-North Carolina: 2.0, 3.84M). Figures for the two other bowl games from the weekend will be added when available.
