Biggest tracked game
34.1M
2014 Oregon at Ohio State on ESPN 'Megacast'
Audience Intelligence
College Football TV Ratings & Viewership Lab
Compare rated college football audiences by game, team, conference, network, and era using Sports Media Watch rows matched to CFBTrack games.
Rated Sample
5,328 games
2008 – 2025 with 7 rows still flagged for review.
Average Audience
2.35M
Median game is 1.37M across 18 seasons.
Audience Context
Rated-game rows are separated from schedule coverage so audience comparisons stay tied to measured broadcasts.
Most Watched
34.1M
Oregon at Ohio State on ESPN 'Megacast'.
Top Team Draw
Alabama
8.29M average across 178 rated appearances.
Rated Games
5,328
Sports Media Watch audience rows matched to CFBTrack games.
Median Audience
1.37M
Average audience is 2.35M in the active scope.
10M+ Games
133
Eight-figure TV audiences in the rated-game sample.
Coverage Range
2008 – 2025
Audience rows are tracked separately from schedule-only media coverage.
Audience research
TV ratings and viewership lab
Use Sports Media Watch audience rows to compare games, teams, conferences, and network draw.
Early seasons include partial Sports Media Watch packages and selected articles, so year-over-year comparisons should account for coverage depth.
All rated games5,328 gamesCFP era4,636 gamesRegular season4,848 gamesPostseason480 games10M+ club133 gamesNetwork TV1,565 games
Rated games
5,328
2008-2025 with 7 rows in review.
Average viewers
2.35M
Median audience is 1.37M.
Most watched
34.1M
Oregon at Ohio State
Million-plus games
3,102
9.0% of rated rows are postseason.
Team and network comparisons use matched rated-game rows from the active scope; regular-season filters use the dataset's regular season_type and team brand-lift baselines exclude direct head-to-head games.
Share hooks
Stats built for arguments
Fast cuts from the active filter, ready to copy into a post or use as a research lead.
Top team draw
Alabama
8.29M average across 178 rated games
Best repeat matchup
24.6M
Alabama vs Clemson, 4 tracked games
Regular-season king
20.0M
2011 LSU at Alabama on CBS
10M+ club
133
Games reached at least eight-figure audiences
Top conference draw
Pacific-10 Conference
5.66M average by team appearance
Top outlet
ESPN
2.45M average across 1426 games
Audience timeline
Coverage depth and audience pull by season
The bars show average audience while the row count keeps partial early-season samples visible.
2008
8.71M · 7 games
2009
6.61M · 42 games
2010
5.92M · 47 games
2011
5.97M · 36 games
2012
2.79M · 179 games
2013
2.32M · 381 games
2014
2.29M · 399 games
2015
2.25M · 400 games
2016
2.30M · 377 games
2017
2.23M · 389 games
2018
2.41M · 347 games
2019
2.42M · 364 games
2020
2.11M · 291 games
2021
2.24M · 378 games
2022
2.25M · 389 games
2023
1.98M · 495 games
2024
2.03M · 472 games
2025
2.29M · 335 games
TV draw rankings
Programs that move the number
Average audience by team appearance, with rated-game counts beside every rank so small samples stay visible.
| Rank | Team | Avg | Games | 10M+ | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Alabama Southeastern Conference | 8.29M | 178 | 49 | |
| #2 | Ohio State Big Ten Conference | 7.17M | 166 | 29 | |
| #3 | Georgia Southeastern Conference | 6.47M | 148 | 25 | |
| #4 | Michigan Big Ten Conference | 5.92M | 146 | 19 | |
| #5 | LSU Southeastern Conference | 5.06M | 153 | 15 | |
| #6 | Auburn Southeastern Conference | 4.65M | 130 | 11 | |
| #7 | Clemson Atlantic Coast Conference | 4.54M | 149 | 13 | |
| #8 | Florida Southeastern Conference | 4.48M | 136 | 5 | |
| #9 | Notre Dame NCAA Division I FBS independent schools | 4.43M | 172 | 10 | |
| #10 | Oklahoma Big 12 Conference | 4.21M | 164 | 7 | |
| #11 | Texas Big 12 Conference | 4.20M | 156 | 13 | |
| #12 | Tennessee Southeastern Conference | 4.20M | 108 | 5 | |
| #13 | Penn State Big Ten Conference | 4.10M | 136 | 5 | |
| #14 | Florida State Atlantic Coast Conference | 4.03M | 136 | 8 | |
| #15 | Oregon Pac-12 Conference | 3.97M | 140 | 6 |
Network ranks
Top team draws by broadcast network
Average audience by team appearance on ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC, with rated-game counts shown next to each leader.
ABC
- #1 Alabama8.12M27 games
- #2 Georgia7.63M26 games
- #3 Texas A&M6.69M11 games
- #4 LSU6.67M23 games
- #5 Ohio State6.31M65 games
CBS
- #1 Alabama8.70M79 games
- #2 LSU7.29M45 games
- #3 Auburn7.02M44 games
- #4 Georgia6.68M61 games
- #5 Florida6.27M47 games
FOX
- #1 Alabama7.82M2 games
- #2 Ohio State7.71M50 games
- #3 Michigan7.41M38 games
- #4 Missouri6.54M1 games
- #5 Penn State5.99M20 games
NBC
- #1 Clemson6.64M2 games
- #2 Texas A&M6.20M1 games
- #3 Oregon6.20M4 games
- #4 Ohio State5.73M7 games
- #5 Colorado5.67M1 games