The non-playoff college football bowls continue to deliver multi-year highs.
Tuesday’s Michigan-Alabama ReliaQuest Bowl (previously the Outback Bowl) averaged 6.55 million viewers on ESPN, the largest audience for the Tampa-based bowl game since South Carolina-Michigan on ESPN New Year’s Day 2013 (7.6M).
Outside of the playoff-affiliated bowls (Rose, Sugar, Fiesta, Orange, Cotton and Peach), the Wolverines’ win delivered the largest bowl audience on the ESPN cable networks since the January 2016 Alamo Bowl (TCU-Oregon: 8.76M).
Viewership increased 42% from LSU-Wisconsin last year (4.67M), which aired in a New Year’s Day window on ESPN2 opposite competing games on ABC and ESPN. This year’s game aired in a fully standalone window.
The last time Alabama played a bowl game that was not part of the playoff rotation was five years ago, when another matchup against Michigan drew 14.0 million in the Citrus Bowl. That game aired on ABC New Year’s Day.
Airing immediately afterward, the Baylor-LSU Texas Bowl averaged 4.21 million — the largest audience for that game since 2019 (Oklahoma State-Texas A&M: 4.90M). Viewership increased 37% from Oklahoma State-Texas A&M last year (3.08M).
LSU’s win aired directly opposite the competing Illinois-South Carolina Citrus Bowl on ABC, which averaged 4.26 million — down 37% from last year, when the game aired on New Year’s Day (Tennessee-Iowa: 6.80M).
Figures for the Sun Bowl on CBS, which also aired in the above-mentioned midday window, were not immediately available.
In other bowl action, Thursday’s Mississippi-Duke Gator Bowl averaged 5.03 million viewers on ESPN following the rescheduled Sugar Bowl — up 47% from Clemson-Kentucky last year (3.43M). (It was not a multi-year high, as the December 2022 matchup of Notre Dame and South Carolina drew 5.77 million.)
Rounding out the recent bowl slate, last Monday’s Missouri-Iowa Music City Bowl averaged 2.82 million on ESPN — up 7% from Maryland-Auburn last year (2.63M). Keep in mind this year’s game aired during the workday and last year’s aired in a Saturday window on ABC.
