College football Nielsen viewership for the 2025 season.
2025 College Football TV Ratings
Viewership figures obtained from network PR. All figures are based on Nielsen’s new “Big Data + Panel” measurement unless otherwise noted. For more details on the Nielsen methodological changes, see further down this page.
Week 14
The annual Ohio State-Michigan rivalry game dominated Thanksgiving week with more than 18 million viewers on FOX, the largest audience of the season, surpassing Texas-Ohio State in week one.
[Some FS1 figures from Programming Insider 12.5]
Week 13
The SEC had its annual “cupcake” weekend, but still topped the viewership charts in week thirteen of the season — as Arkansas-Texas outdrew the marquee Oregon-USC game head-to-head. The SEC on ABC took three of the top four spots.
[Some BTN figures from Programming Insider 11.19]
Week 12
Back on YouTube TV for the first time in three weeks, ABC dominated week twelve of the season as its two SEC games both topped the ten million viewer mark. Overall, ESPN/ABC swept the top four, with ESPN delivering its top audience since week three.
[Some FS1 figures from Programming Insider 11.19]
Week 11
ABC topped a tenth-straight college football Saturday as LSU-Alabama drew 7.54 million viewers, but with the Disney networks blacked out on YouTube TV for a second-straight weekend, it was not as dominant as in past weeks. Both FOX and CBS placed games in the top three — the first all season that ABC did not have at least two of the top three — and BYU-Texas Tech was the network’s least-watched game in more than a month.
[Some FS1 figures from Programming Insider 11.12]
Week 10
ABC topped a ninth-straight college football Saturday as Georgia-Florida averaged 7.8 million viewers, but for the first time in four weeks it did not sweep the top three. FOX drew 7.2 million for Penn State-Ohio State, easily the most-watched game on the network since Texas-Ohio State in week one.
Opposite Game 7 of the World Series, ABC drew 4.81 million for Oklahoma-Tennessee in primetime Saturday night. Combined, eight primetime college football games across ABC, the ESPN networks, FS1, BTN, NBC and CBS averaged 11.62 million viewers opposite Game 7, which drew north of 27 million.
[FS1/BTN figures from Programming Insider 11.5]
Week 9
ABC led yet another college football Saturday and once again swept the top three, with Alabama-South Carolina topping the charts at 7.84 million. Texas A&M-LSU followed with 6.76 million and Mississippi-Oklahoma placed third with 6.55 million.
NBC topped the non-“SEC on ABC” slate with 3.63 million for Michigan-Michigan State.
[FS1 figures from Programming Insider 10.23]
Week 8
For the seventh-straight week, ABC topped the college football viewership charts and in fact swept the top three windows. Mississippi-Georgia led the way with 9.79 million viewers, followed by Tennessee-Alabama at 8.01 million and LSU-Vanderbilt at 5.94 million. Notre Dame-USC topped the non-“SEC on ABC” slate with 4.64 million in primetime on NBC.
[FOX primetime, BTN and FS1 figures from Programming Insider 10.23]
Week 7
ABC topped yet another week as the Oklahoma-Texas “Red River Rivalry” led week seven of the season with 8.73 million viewers, winning a competitive mid-afternoon slot that also included Indiana-Oregon on CBS at 5.59 million. The “SEC on ABC” tripleheader took the top three spots in week seven, with Alabama-Missouri at 6.99 million and Georgia-Auburn at 6.69 million.
Week 6
ABC led a fifth-straight week as Vanderbilt-Alabama drew 6.4 million viewers. Miami’s win over Florida State, which was at one point a rout, ranked second.
[Some data from Programming Insider 10.8]
Week 5
ABC topped the ten million mark again in week five of the season as Alabama-Georgia drew 10.4 million viewers — the sixth-largest audience of the season. In the competing window on NBC, Oregon-Penn State drew 8.5 million (Nielsen + Adobe Analytics).
Week 4
ABC took the top two spots in week four of the college football season as Florida-Miami averaged 6.46 million viewers and Auburn-Oklahoma drew 6.12 million. After ESPN won the Noon ET window last week, FOX topped that slot this week with 4.04 million for Texas Tech-Utah, ahead of 3.39 million for Syracuse-Clemson on ESPN.
Week 3
Georgia-Tennessee dominated week three of the college football season with 12.58 million viewers on ABC, followed by Florida-LSU at a distant second with 7.64 million. NBC’s Texas A&M-Notre Dame game drew 6.2 million, including additional streaming viewership measured by Adobe Analytics.
Week 2
Michigan-Oklahoma topped week two of the college football season with 9.67 million viewers on ABC, the network’s largest week two audience since 2006. As with the prior week, keep in mind that Nielsen methodological changes give this season an advantage over prior years.
ABC took three of the top four spots in week two.
Weeks 0-1
Texas-Ohio State topped the opening weekend of the season with more than 16 million viewers, the largest week one college football audience on record, with the caveat that Nielsen’s new “Big Data” methodology and expansion of out-of-home viewing provide an advantage over prior years.
Nielsen’s methodological changes
As of September 1, all Nielsen figures are based on “Big Data + Panel” methodology, which combines the existing Nielsen panel with data from smart TVs and set-top boxes, plus first-party streaming data provided by participating network partners. These viewership figures will generally outpace the ‘panel only’ data that had been reported in past years.
In addition, as of February, Nielsen expanded its out-of-home viewing measurement to cover all markets, further giving this year’s numbers an advantage over those reported in prior seasons.
Why are there no ratings for SEC Network, ACC Network and more?
The television networks pay Nielsen to measure viewership for their events. In some cases, they may choose not to. In a statement to Sports Media Watch, ESPN explained its rationale for not subscribing to Nielsen measurement for SEC Network, ACC Network, Longhorn Network and more:
ESPN: “We regularly evaluate measurement options and currently use ComScore for all demographic, viewership and research data for ESPN’s college conference networks. We have found that this best suits our needs across the board.”
Nielsen ratings explainer
Rating: The percentage of television homes tuned to the game in the average minute. 1.9% of U.S. television homes were tuned to the 2023 Navy-Notre Dame game in the average minute.
Viewers: The number of viewers aged 2+ viewing the game in the average minute. Navy-Notre Dame averaged 3.56 million viewers per minute. (That does not mean 3.56 million viewers total watched the game. Nielsen uses a separate total viewing figure to estimate how many viewers watched at least six minutes of any given telecast. Typically, that figure is significantly higher than the average viewership listed here.)
Nielsen uses sampling data to estimate television audiences, which means your specific decision to watch or not watch a game does not have any direct impact on the numbers — unless you have been chosen by Nielsen to be part of its sample and agreed to do so.
Does viewership include streaming?
All Nielsen figures include streaming viewership through “virtual MVPDs” (ex. YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, Sling, Fubo, DIRECTV STREAM) on television, computer and mobile devices.
Does viewership include DVR?
Yes, all Nielsen figures cited here include same-day DVR. Nielsen also releases viewership figures that include three, seven and even 35 days of DVR viewing, but those are not shown here as they are not particularly relevant for sporting events.
Does viewership include bars and restaurants?
As of August 31, 2020, all Nielsen figures include out-of-home viewing. Again, Nielsen uses sampling data to calculate the audience, meaning that your viewing of a sporting event outside of your home does not count unless you are in a “Nielsen family.”
Ratings for previous seasons
Previous college football TV ratings pages are available through the following links: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012.
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