A&M-Bama tops week six, but no match for last year

Texas A&M’s near-miss against Alabama was no match for their upset last year.

Texas A&M-Alabama averaged a 3.9 rating and 7.15 million viewers in the annual primetime edition of the SEC on CBS Saturday night, down double-digits from the same matchup in the same timeslot on the same weekend of last year (4.5, ~8.3M). Despite the decline, the Tide’s win was Saturday’s highest rated and most-watched sporting event — not only topping all other college football games but the competing Padres-Mets Major League Baseball playoff game on ESPN (1.8, 3.54M).

It also ranks as the fourth-most watched college football game this season, behind Alabama-Texas on FOX in week two (10.60M), and Notre Dame-Ohio State (10.53M) and FSU-LSU (7.55M) on ABC in week one. Six of the top seven games have featured at least one SEC team.

The SEC on CBS has been the highest rated and most-watched college football window in each of its four weeks on-air. Keep in mind that includes one week when the package featured a Big Ten school (Penn State).

Ranking a distant second for the weekend, Ohio State-Michigan State drew a 2.4 and 4.44 million on ABC Saturday afternoon — nearly doubling Boise State-BYU in the same window last year (1.3, ~2.2M). The Buckeyes’ blowout win narrowly edged the competing Auburn-Georgia game on CBS, which at a 2.3 and 4.24 million declined from the same matchup last year (2.6, ~4.6M).

Rounding out the top five were a pair of competing Noon ET games. FOX drew a 2.3 and 4.01 million for Michigan-Indiana on “Big Noon Saturday” — up big from Maryland-Ohio State last year (1.5, ~2.8M) and slightly ahead of the competing Red River blowout between Texas and Oklahoma on ABC (1.8, 3.36M).

The Longhorns’ win declined sharply from the same matchup on the same network last year (3.4, ~5.9M) to rank as the rivals’ least-watched meeting since 2016 on FS1 (2.79M). It barely outdrew the competing Tennessee-LSU game on ESPN, which at a 1.7 and 2.96 million posted a solid increase over Arkansas-Mississippi last year (1.3, ~2.3M).

Other notable results include a 1.5 and 2.65 million for Utah-UCLA on FOX, down more than half from #4 Penn State-#3 Iowa last year (3.7, ~6.9M); a 1.4 and 2.53 million for BYU-Notre Dame on NBC, second only to Texas A∓M-Alabama in a crowded primetime window; and a 0.7 and 1.31 million for TCU-Kansas on FS1, the network’s most-watched game of the season — until later the same afternoon, when Texas Tech-Oklahoma State drew a 0.9 and 1.63 million.

Speaking of TCU-Kansas, ESPN’s College Gameday averaged 2.29 million viewers from the site of the game in Lawrence, Kansas — its largest early season audience since 2010 and its sixth-largest audience in the past nine years.

The full list of week six numbers is available below, and the full list of college football ratings this season is available on the following page.