The Florida/Tennessee rivalry was the top college football attraction over the weekend.
Saturday’s Florida/Tennessee college football game drew a 3.1 U.S. rating and 5.076 million viewers on ESPN, up 41% in ratings and 39% in viewership from Ohio State/Miami in a later timeslot last year (2.2, 3.646M), and up 24% and 20%, respectively, from Clemson/Auburn in 2010 (2.5, 4.248M).
According to ESPN, the game earned the largest audience of the weekend for college football on any network — even topping Notre Dame/Michigan State on ABC’s “Saturday Night Football,” which finished second with 4.977 million.
Of note, Saturday’s game drew a higher rating and more viewers than last year’s Tennessee/Florida matchup, which aired on broadcast network CBS (3.0, 4.616M).
Overall, Florida/Tennessee ranks as the most-viewed college football game of the young season on ESPN or ESPN2. The previous high was 4.531 million for Florida/Texas A&M one week earlier.
(Saturday’s numbers from ESPN Media Zone, with additional information from Bloomberg)
