A weak performance last year led to huge gains this year for college football on FOX.
Last Saturday’s Oklahoma/West Virginia college football game drew a 2.0 final rating and 3.2 million viewers on FOX, up 67% in ratings and 70% in viewership from Arizona State/Stanford last year (1.2, 1.9M) and up 11% and 14%, respectively, from Kansas State/Oklahoma in 2012 (1.8, 2.8M).
Head-to-head, the game was topped by both Clemson/Florida State on ABC (4.5, 7.3M) and Mississippi State/LSU on ESPN (2.1, 3.5M).
Shifting to Fox Sports 1, San Diego State/Oregon State was the top game of the weekend with a mere 0.1 and 171,000 viewers. There was no comparable telecast last year. Louisville/FIU earlier in the day drew a 0.1 and 119,000 viewers, flat in ratings and down 25% in viewership from UL-Monroe/Baylor last year (0.1, 159K).
The Louisville/FIU telecast started late due to rain. FS1 left coverage of the game at 7 PM ET for Major League Baseball coverage. The full game aired on Fox Sports 2, drawing a 0.0 and 8,000 viewers.
(Sat. numbers from Sports Business Daily, Awful Announcing)
