There was nothing at stake — the teams merely swapped spots atop the rankings — but a #1 vs. #2 Big Ten title game still delivered milestone viewership on FOX.
Saturday’s Indiana-Ohio State Big Ten football championship averaged 18.33 million viewers on FOX, trailing only Michigan-Ohio State the previous week (18.42M) as the largest college football audience of the season. Three of the top four audiences belong to FOX, all involving Ohio State, as the Buckeyes’ season opener against Texas ranks fourth (16.62M). (The SEC Championship on ABC ranks third with 16.9 million.)
The Hoosiers’ win, which peaked with 19.99 million in the 11 PM ET quarter-hour, delivered the largest audience on record for a conference championship game — surpassing the 2009 Alabama-Florida SEC Championship on CBS (17.97M).
Keep in mind that Nielsen did not begin tracking out-of-home viewing in its estimates until 2020 and did not do so in 100 percent of markets until earlier this year. In addition, Nielsen in September shifted to a new methodology that adds “Big Data” from smart TVs and set-top boxes to its traditional panel. Those changes will generally give this year’s viewership figures a leg up on even a year ago, much less 2009.
But just beating this year’s SEC Championship constitutes a milestone, marking the first time that the Big Ten title game has topped its SEC equivalent — and just the second time since 2008 that any conference has done so. (The other year was 2020, when due to COVID-related scheduling changes, the ACC title game aired in the mid-afternoon window usually occupied by the SEC.)
There was some question as to whether the matchup of the top-ranked teams in the College Football Playoff rankings would resonate with viewers given the complete absence of stakes. Never has there been a #1 vs. #2 college football game with less on the line, as both teams were considered locks to make the 12-team playoff field. And indeed, the teams merely swapped places in the final rankings Sunday, with Indiana now ranked #1 and Ohio State #2.
But evidently, #1 vs. #2 still means something to the audience. It may simply be the case that as in other leagues, viewers want to watch the best teams compete against each other and do not necessarily need the result to impact the playoff race. Or even that #1 vs. #2 was viewed as a potential playoff preview, as a September Yankees-Red Sox game might be in baseball.
Whatever the reason, as the playoff expands and the conferences realign, it might be time to start rethinking the long-held view that the college football regular season must have playoff-level stakes.
The massive audience for this year’s Big Ten title game comes as NBCUniversal is reportedly trying to sell its rights to next year’s game — the only Big Ten Championship on NBC during the current rights deal — to Amazon. John Ourand of Puck reported Monday that NBC’s plan is “slowly advancing” as the Big Ten has not yet denied the request. But both the Big Ten and Fox Sports, which controls all Big Ten media rights via its ownership of Big Ten Network, would have to approve.
Ourand previously reported that NBC is seeking $70 million for the game.
It should be noted that per reporting by Pete Thamel of ESPN two years ago, then-Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren awarded next year’s Big Ten title game to NBC without the permission of Fox, resulting in the conference having to compensate the network $40 million.
