If there was any question about the appeal of college football bowl games in the expanded playoff era, they were answered with a slew of multi-year viewership highs over the past week.
Saturday’s BYU-Colorado Alamo Bowl averaged 8.00 million viewers on ABC, marking the largest audience for any bowl game outside of the College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six since the Michigan-Alabama Citrus Bowl on ABC in January 2020 (14.00M).
The Cougars’ blowout win delivered the largest audience on record for the Alamo Bowl, surpassing the previous high of 7.83 million for Texas Tech-Michigan State on ESPN in 2010. (Given out-of-home viewing was not tracked in Nielsen estimates prior to 2020, it is likely that game would still rank higher all things being equal.)
Viewership more-than-doubled last year’s Alamo Bowl, which aired in a Thursday night window on ESPN (Arizona-Oklahoma: 3.93M), and came reasonably close to the competing Cardinals-Rams NFL game on NFL Network — which averaged 8.8 million (not counting local affiliate simulcasts in the home markets).
The Alamo Bowl was the most-watched Colorado game all season, surpassing the previous high of 6.22 million for the Buffaloes’ late-season loss to Kansas.
Earlier in the day, ABC averaged 6.8 million for the Iowa State-Miami Pop-Tarts Bowl — the largest audience for the Orlando-based bowl since 2008 (Florida State-Wisconsin: 7.06M) and an increase of 58% from last year on ESPN (Kansas State-NC State: 4.31M).
Iowa State’s narrow win, which peaked with 8.7 million viewers, faced considerable competition from the Broncos-Bengals NFL game on NFL Network — which averaged 11.3 million (not including local affiliate simulcasts).
In other bowl game action, ABC opened its tripleheader with 4.19 million for the Boston College-Nebraska Pinstripe Bowl — up 40% from Rutgers-Miami on ESPN last year (3.00M) and the largest audience for the game since Notre Dame-Rutgers in 2013 (4.84M).
ABC averaged 6.3 million viewers for its tripleheader, slightly ahead of what the network averaged for regular season Saturdays, despite facing NFL games that averaged 8.7 million.
Shifting to cable, Friday’s Texas Tech-Arkansas Liberty Bowl averaged 4.21 million — up 17% from Memphis-Iowa State in an afternoon window last year (3.60M) and the top audience for the game since 2015. The Georgia Tech-Vanderbilt Birmingham Bowl drew 4.05 million earlier in the day, up 52% from last year’s game on ABC (Duke-Troy: 2.67M) and the top audience for the game since 2014.
Those two games ranks as the most-watched of the bowl season on cable, excluding the playoffs. Both games outdrew the Syracuse-Washington State Holiday Bowl on FOX, which at 2.93 million viewers posted its smallest audience since it last aired on FS1 in 2019 (Iowa-USC: 2.50M).
Elsewhere Friday, ESPN drew 2.85 million for the Navy-Oklahoma Armed Forces Bowl — up 17% from last year on ABC (Air Force-James Madison (2.44M) and the highest since 2017 (Army-San Diego State: 3.49M). The USC-Texas A&M Las Vegas Bowl rounded out the night with 2.75 million in a late night window, down 11% from last year’s primetime game on ABC (Northwestern-Utah: 3.09M).
On Thursday, the Rutgers-Kansas State Cactus Bowl drew 3.50 million (+30%), the highest since January 2016 (West Virginia-Kansas State: 3.7M). It was preceded by the multiple-overtime Pittsburgh-Toledo Detroit Bowl at 2.56 million (+15%), the highest since 2019 (Pittsburgh-Eastern Michigan: 3.05M). The Arkansas State-Bowling Green Mobile Bowl rounded out the day with 1.68 million (+120%), the highest since 2018 (Troy-Buffalo: 1.70M).
Going back to Christmas Eve, the South Florida-San Jose State Hawaii Bowl drew 1.93 million (+103%) its top audience since 2019, which was also the most recent year that it did not face NFL competition.
Rounding out the recent slate, the December 23 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (Northern Illinois-Fresno State) drew 1.32 million (+15%), the highest since 2019 (Nevada-Ohio: 1.36M). The UTSA-Coastal Carolina Myrtle Beach Bowl was a rare dud with 767,000, down 36% from last year’s 1.20 million for Georgia Southern-Ohio, though the 11 AM ET Monday timeslot was the primary culprit. Last year’s game aired in a Saturday afternoon window.
