The SEC title game took rare second billing on championship weekend, but still commanded a large audience on ABC.
Saturday’s Georgia-Alabama SEC Championship averaged 16.86 million viewers on ABC, up 2% from Georgia-Texas last year (16.63M), though that is well within the range that could be explained solely by Nielsen methodological changes. (Nielsen in February expanded its out-of-home viewing sample to 100 percent of markets and in September shifted to a new “Big Data + Panel” methodology that adds viewership from smart TVs and set-top boxes to its traditional panel.)
Keeping those the methodological caveats in mind, this year’s audience is the fourth-largest ever for the SEC Championship and the fifth-largest for any conference title game.
The Bulldogs’ win, which peaked with 17.9 million viewers, delivered the largest audience of the season on ESPN/ABC and third-largest across all networks. But for just the second time since 2008, the SEC title game was not the most-watched of conference championship weekend, trailing the #1 vs. #2 Indiana-Ohio State Big Ten Championship on FOX (18.33M).
ABC also averaged 8.99 million for the Texas Tech-BYU Big 12 Championship, a 30 percent increase over Arizona State-Iowa State last year (6.90M). The Red Raiders’ win, which peaked with 11.4 million, was easily the most-watched Big 12 game all season.
In primetime, the Duke-Virginia ACC Championship averaged 3.88 million — down 35% from Clemson-SMU last year (5.98M). The Blue Devils’ win, which peaked with 6.4 million, faced heavier-than-usual competition from the previously mentioned Indiana-Ohio State game.
Rounding out the ABC slate, Friday’s Tulane-North Texas American Conference title game averaged 2.41 million — up 21% from Army-Tulane last year (2.00M). Tulane’s playoff-clinching win, which peaked with 2.9 million, easily won its Friday night window over the Mountain West title game on FOX, which carried no playoff implications.
Overall, ABC averaged 7.7 million for its conference championship slate, down from last year (8.4M) but otherwise the network’s highest average on that weekend since 2014. (Keep in mind it did not carry the SEC title game until last year.)
As for the other group of five team to make the playoff, James Madison’s win over Troy in the Sun Belt title game drew 1.15 million — the largest audience on record for that game.
