A top-ten thriller pitting prominent programs scored one of the top college football ratings of the season.
FOX earned a 6.4 overnight rating for Penn State-Ohio State Saturday afternoon, the network’s second-highest college football overnight ever, excluding bowl games. The 2013 Ohio State-Michigan State Big Ten Championship holds the top spot (8.4).
The Buckeyes’ comeback win, which peaked at a 9.0 from 7-7:15 PM ET, scored the second-highest college football overnight of the season behind Alabama-Florida State on ABC in week one (7.3).
Compared to the teams’ meeting last year, which aired opposite the Cubs clinching their first National League pennant since 1945, overnights increased 52% from a 4.5.
As goes without saying, the 6.4 overnight was the highest of the day — cruising past the second-place mark of 2.5 for Oklahoma State-West Virginia on ABC. This weekend marked just the second time FOX has topped the charts on any college football weekend.
In the same window, Georgia-Florida had just a 2.2 overnight on CBS — down 19% from last year (2.7) and down 35% from 2015 (3.4), both of which featured the same matchup. The 2.2 is the lowest for the rivalry since at least 2002.
Also airing in the timeslot, ABC had a 2.0 for regional action (-16%) and NBC drew a 1.8 for N.C. State-Notre Dame (+13%).
In other action, ABC’s previously-mentioned Oklahoma State-West Virginia game had a 2.5 overnight — up 19% from regional action last year (2.1) and up 39% from Syracuse-Florida State in 2015 (1.8).
ABC’s Saturday Night Football, a rare split-national telecast between Georgia Tech-Clemson and Texas Tech-Oklahoma, had a 2.4 overnight opposite the World Series — down a third from Clemson-FSU last year (3.6) and down 38% from Notre Dame-Temple in 2015 (3.9).
[Wknd. numbers from Fox Sports/Twitter 10.29, Sports Business Daily 10.30]
