The Big Ten has played on just two of the first nine college football weekends thus far, but already accounts for three of the season’s top five ratings.
Ohio State-Penn State averaged a 3.45 rating and 6.53 million viewers on ABC’s Saturday Night Football over the weekend, marking the second-largest audience of the season behind Georgia-Alabama two weeks earlier (9.61M). The Buckeyes’ two games this season rank among the three most-watched, with their opener against Nebraska the previous week ranking third (6.18M).
The Big Ten accounts for three of the top five, with the previous week’s Michigan-Minnesota matchup ranking fifth.
This season’s top five games are the only ones thus far to average at least five million viewers, compared to 18 through nine weeks last year. It bears noting that Ohio State-Penn State would not have ranked among the ten most-watched games at the nine-week mark last season.
Ratings fell 9% and viewership 3% from last year’s comparable week nine game on ABC, Notre Dame-Michigan opposite the World Series (3.8, 6.75M). Versus last year’s Ohio State-Penn State game, a Noon ET matchup on FOX in late November, ratings fell 41% (from 5.85) and viewership 31% (from 9.43M).
Columbus led all markets (38.6), followed by Cleveland (24.5), Dayton (22.0), Cincinnati (11.1) and Pittsburgh (8.7).
Earlier Saturday, ABC averaged a 2.7 and 4.38 million for Boston College’s near upset of shorthanded Clemson — flat in ratings and up 4% in viewership from last year (Oklahoma-Kansas State: 2.7, 4.21M) — and a 2.2 and 3.77 million for Notre Dame-Georgia Tech (both -4%). ABC’s three games averaged 4.94 million, marking the network’s most-watched tripleheader since the same week nine of last season.
FOX led the non-ABC slate with a 2.4 and 4.22 million for Michigan State-Michigan on Big Noon Saturday — down 43% in ratings and 37% in viewership from Wisconsin-Ohio State last year (4.2, 6.65M). That led into Oklahoma State’s upset loss to Texas at a 2.3 and 4.04 million, up 44% and 56% respectively from Texas-TCU last year (1.6, 2.58M). The Oklahoma-Texas Tech nightcap chipped in a 1.2 and 2.12 million.
Over on CBS, the matchup of unranked LSU and Auburn pulled a 2.1 and 3.45 million — down 51% in ratings and 52% in viewership from the same matchup in the same week last year, when both teams were in the top ten (4.3, 7.18M).
ESPN topped out at a 1.2 rating for Minnesota-Maryland on Friday and 2.00 million viewers for Mississippi State-Alabama on Saturday. The former delivered ESPN’s largest weekday college football audience (1.91M) since week two of last season (Washington State-Houston: 2.07M).
FS1’s top game was Indiana-Rutgers, which averaged a 0.28 (-13%) and 506,000 (-4%) in a window that was originally supposed to feature Wisconsin-Nebraska.
The full list of 2020 college football ratings is available here.
