2021 College Football TV Ratings by Conference

[YouSayPotato]

The College Football regular season this year showed the sport was healthy on its face. 51 college football games pulled in at least 3.5 Million people, which is an absurd number. A closer look at the number shows a pretty wide discrepancy between the conferences, which might be even larger than some think. Using SportsMediaWatch, I took every game that brought out over 3.5 Million viewers and organized it by conference, by school, and by network.

First here are the numbers by conference:
Big 10:

Number of Viewers​	Number of Games (Half Game for Non-Conference )​	Game​
Top 10 Overall Game (7 Million or more)​	4​	OSU-MICH, MICH-MSU, ORE-OSU, AUB-PSU, PSU-OSU​
Between 6-7 Million​	2​	PSU-IOWA, OSU-MIN​
Between 5-6 Million​	5.5​	MICH-PSU, PSU-WIS, OSU-NEB, ND-WIS, MSU-OSU, WIS-MIN​
Between 4-5 Million​	5​	WAS-MICH, PUR-OSU, MICH-NEB, MSU-PUR, MICH-WIS, NEB-OU​
Over 3.5 Million​	4.5​	IU-PSU, PSU-MSU, IOWA-ISU, ILL-PSU, NEB-WIS​
Total​	21​	​

SEC:

Number of Viewers​	Number of Games (Half Game for Non-Conference )​	Game​
Top 10 Overall Game (7 Million or more)​	4​	ALA-AUB, UGA-CLEM, ALA-A&M, ALA-UF, AUB-PSU​
Between 6-7 Million​	2​	UK-UGA, UGA-UF​
Between 5-6 Million​	3.5​	UGA-TENN, ALA-MIA, ARK-ALA, LSU-ALA​
Between 4-5 Million​	3.5​	TENN-ALA, UGA-AUB, A&M-COL, A&M-ARK​
Over 3.5 Million​	5​	ARK-UGA, AUB-LSU, AUB-A&M, A&M-MISS, ALA-MISS ST​
Total​	18​	​

ACC:

Number of Viewers​	Number of Games (Half Game for Non-Conference )​	Game​
Top 10 Overall Game (7 Million or more)​	1​	UGA-CLEM, ND-FSU​
Between 6-7 Million​	0​	​
Between 5-6 Million​	0.5​	ALA-MIA​
Between 4-5 Million​	0​	​
Over 3.5 Million​	0​	​
Total​	1.5​	​

Big 12:

Number of Viewers​	Number of Games (Half Game for Non-Conference )​	Game​
Top 10 Overall Game (7 Million or more)​	0​	​
Between 6-7 Million​	1​	OU-OK ST​
Between 5-6 Million​	1​	OU-TEX​
Between 4-5 Million​	1.5​	WVU-OU, NEB-OU​
Over 3.5 Million​	1.5​	IOWA-ISU, OU-BU​
Total​	5​	​

Pac 12:

Number of Viewers​	Number of Games (Half Game for Non-Conference )​	Game​
Top 10 Overall Game (7 Million or more)​	0.5​	ORE-OSU​
Between 6-7 Million​	0​	​
Between 5-6 Million​	0​	​
Between 4-5 Million​	2​	ORE-UTAH, WAS-MICH, A&M-COL​
Over 3.5 Million​	1​	ORE-UCLA​
Total​	3.5​	​

Other:

Number of Viewers​	Number of Games (Half Game for Non-Conference )​	Game​
Top 10 Overall Game (7 Million or more)​	0.5​	ND-FSU​
Between 6-7 Million​	0​	​
Between 5-6 Million​	0.5​	ND-WIS​
Between 4-5 Million​	0​	​
Over 3.5 Million​	1​	CIN-ND​
Total​	2​	​

So it is clear that the Big 10 and SEC are kings, which is further outlined here looking at this by school:

Conference​	Games Responsible For Out of Top 51​	Number of Schools Involved​	Schools Involved in Games​
Big 10​	21​	11​	Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin​
SEC​	18​	11​	Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Texas A&M​
Big 12​	5​	6​	Baylor, Iowa State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, West Virginia​
Pac 12​	3.5​	5​	Colorado, Oregon, UCLA, Utah, Washington​
Other​	2​	2​	Cincinnati, Notre Dame​
ACC​	1.5​	3​	Clemson, Florida State, Miami​
Total​	51 Games​	38 Schools​	​

Number of 3.5 Million+ Games​	School​
8​	Alabama, Penn State​
7​	Ohio State​
6​	Georgia, Michigan​
5​	Auburn, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Wisconsin​
4​	Nebraska, Notre Dame​
3​	Arkansas, Michigan State, Oregon​
2​	Florida, Iowa, LSU, Minnesota, Purdue, Tennessee​
1​	Baylor, Cincinnati, Clemson, Colorado, Florida State, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa State, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Oklahoma State, Miami, Mississippi State, Texas, UCLA, Utah, Washington, West Virginia​

One last anecdote to share is breaking down the number of games by network:

Network​	Number of Games With 3.5 Million+ Viewers​
ABC​	21​
FOX​	12​
CBS​	11​
ESPN​	6​
NBC​	1​
Total​	51​

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[Woodsa]

This is very insightful. Thanks for sharing. Good to see the branding of the B10 a strong. Need other team's to grow viewership to improve lower level metrics.

 

[SCBoiler1]

Great post! Its interesting to see. I guess ND doesn't have the drawing power it once had. I only see ND as having three games. Wisconsin, FSU and Cinci. Am I missing one?

 

[YouSayPotato]

Great post! Its interesting to see. I guess ND doesn't have the drawing power it once had. I only see ND as having three games. Wisconsin, FSU and Cinci. Am I missing one?

Even more interesting if you take a look at the last category, Network Games with 3.5+ Million Viewers. Notre Dame's network, NBC, had only one game in the entire season with 3.5 million viewers. It appears there isn't a lot of interest in watching the Irish beat up on the Dukes and Wakes and Cuses.

 

[pboiler18]

Even more interesting if you take a look at the last category, Network Games with 3.5+ Million Viewers. Notre Dame's network, NBC, had only one game in the entire season with 3.5 million viewers. It appears there isn't a lot of interest in watching the Irish beat up on the Dukes and Wakes and Cuses.

Or for their coach to stay in town. Say what you want about the ND “mystique” but that star is more than fading! Seems the old “what have you done for me lately” adage is coming home to roost.
In seeking out a lighter schedule they have de marketed themselves from more eyeballs and high profile games for recruits to attend and then play in!

 

[Dowellrl]

Here's team rankings for viewers/game. We're good for 2nd in ACC and have another win over Tennessee.

 

[njm8845]

How many viewers did our ND game have? And the Iowa game?

i would have suspected those each got a lot of eyeballs.