A de facto playoff play-in game finished a distant second on college football’s championship weekend.
The Michigan State/Iowa Big Ten Championship Game earned a 5.9 overnight rating on FOX Saturday night, up 60% from Ohio State/Wisconsin last year (3.7) but down 30% from Ohio State/Michigan State in 2013 (8.4). The 5.9 is the second-highest in the young history of the game (dates back to 2011), behind only 2013.
The Spartans’ last-second win, which clinched a spot in the college football playoff, scored the second-highest college football overnight on FOX since it last aired BCS bowl games in 2010 — topping Notre Dame/Stanford the previous week (4.7) and again behind only the 2013 Big Ten Championship.
It also ranks sixth for the season in the metered markets, trailing the SEC Championship Game on CBS earlier in the day (8.3), LSU/Alabama in week ten (6.3) and three Big Ten games — Michigan State/Ohio State in week twelve (7.0), Ohio State/Michigan the week after (6.8) and Ohio State’s non-conference opener against Virginia Tech on Labor Day (6.6).
Head-to-head, the Big Ten Championship Game topped its ACC (4.6) and Pac-12 (2.0) counterparts by 28% and 195%, respectively. Even so, the competition likely kept the game from putting up even larger numbers. The SEC title game, which as previously noted had a season-high 8.3 overnight, faced no such competition.
* ShowBuzz Daily reported that Saturday’s game had a 5.9 overnight rating, while Sports Business Daily reported a 6.0.
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily)
