For a few hours Saturday, Florida/Florida State was ESPN’s top college football game of the season.
The Florida/FSU game drew a 4.1 overnight rating on ESPN Saturday afternoon, a 273% increase over Penn State/Wisconsin in the same window last year (1.1), and briefly the network’s highest overnight of the season. Auburn/Alabama cruised past that mark later in the evening with a 7.2.
FSU has now played in two of the top four games on ESPN this year, with an October game against Louisville ranking fourth (3.5). The SEC accounts for the rest of the network’s top five.
Florida/FSU was the top game of the mid-afternoon window, topping the Mississippi State/Mississippi Egg Bowl on CBS (3.3), regional action on ABC (2.3), and Notre Dame/USC on FOX (1.5). Overall, it ranked third for the holiday weekend behind the Iron Bowl and ABC’s Michigan/Ohio State game (5.5).
Earlier Saturday, ESPN drew a 1.4 overnight for South Carolina/Clemson — down 39% from FSU/Florida last year (2.3). Friday’s Virginia Tech/Virginia game drew a 1.7. Overnights were not available for the remainder of the network’s holiday weekend slate.
(Wknd. overnights from ShowBuzz Daily)
