College football TV ratings for the 2023 season. Will be updated as the season progresses, typically on Tuesdays (Wednesdays in holiday weeks). College football numbers can also be seen in the the overall weekly sports ratings charts.
2023 college football TV ratings
The following networks or services are not Nielsen-rated and thus are not included: SEC Network, ACC Network, CBS Sports Network, ESPN+, Pac-12 Network, Peacock.
Top 25 games of the 2023 season
The national champion Michigan Wolverines played in the three most-watched games of the 2023 college football season, with the Rose Bowl placing first, the National Championship second and “The Game” against Ohio State third. Overall, Michigan played in four of the eight games this season to average at least ten million viewers, more than any other team. Bowl and conference championship games accounted for five of the six largest audiences during the season.
Bowl season (Week 4)
Michigan’s win over Washington in the National Championship was the most-watched title game in four years with more than 25 million viewers. For the season, it ranked second behind the Rose Bowl. In the other national championship, South Dakota State’s win in the FCS title game averaged just over one million, down slightly from a year ago.
Bowl season (Week 3)
The Rose Bowl delivered college football’s largest audience since the 2018 national championship as nearly 28 million tuned in for Michigan’s overtime win over Alabama. The Sugar Bowl did not fare as well, posting the smallest audience for a New Year’s Day CFP semifinal.
Despite Georgia’s 60-point win, the Orange Bowl was the top bowl game for the week ending December 31 with 10.39 million viewers on ESPN — the largest audience for the game (excluding playoff editions) since 2017. The previous night’s Missouri-Ohio State Cotton Bowl ranked second for the week with 9.72 million, the top audience for that game (again excluding playoff editions) since 2013.
Rounding out the New Year’s Six slate, the Mississippi-Penn State Peach Bowl opened Saturday’s slate with 7.77 million, up from the previous non-playoff edition.
Bowl season (Week 2)
The Northwestern-Utah Las Vegas Bowl delivered the largest audience in week two of the bowl season, averaging 3.09 million viewers on ABC — up more than a quarter from last year, when the game aired in an earlier timeslot. ABC’s Saturday tripleheader delivered the three largest audiences of the bowl season thus far (through December 23), with the Duke-Troy Birmingham Bowl at 2.67 million and the Air Force-James Madison Armed Forces Bowl at 2.44 million. More details here.
The Gasparilla Bowl ranks as the most-watched bowl game on cable thus far with 2.35 million on ESPN, down more than a third from last year.
Bowl season (Week 1)
The UCLA-Boise State LA Bowl topped the first weekend of the bowl season with a 1.4 rating and 2.38 million viewers on ABC, up a tick in ratings but down 1% in viewership from last year, when it aired in an afternoon window (Fresno State-Washington State: 1.3, 2.40M). ABC’s tripleheader took the top three spots on Saturday, with the Appalachian State-Miami (Ohio) Cure Bowl placing second at a 1.2 and 1.95 million — up about a third from last year’s Friday afternoon matchup on ESPN (Troy-UTSA: 0.9, 1.46M) — and the FAMU-Howard Celebration Bowl at a 0.9 (-34%) and 1.51 million (-38%).
The Celebration Bowl posted its smallest audience in its history.
Shifting to cable, the Ohio-Georgia Southern Myrtle Beach Bowl topped the ESPN slate with a 0.7 and 1.20 million — up about a third from last year’s Monday afternoon window (Marshall-UConn: 0.55, 921K).
Week fifteen games
The Army-Navy Game was not quite the only show in town, but it still dominated a light week in college football. The game’s audience of 7.18 million viewers increased 4% from last year.
Meanwhile, the Heisman Trophy Presentation bounced back from last year’s low to deliver its largest audience since 2019.
Week fourteen games
The SEC Championship Game dominated college football championship weekend as more than 17 million tuned in for Alabama’s upset of #1 Georgia — the largest audience for the SEC title game since 2018 and third-largest since CBS began airing it in 2001. (Keep in mind out-of-home viewing was not included in Nielsen’s final nationals prior to 2020.)
The Big Ten title game ranked a distant second with just over ten million, down from last year (10.7M). The Pac-12 Championship ranked third with 9.25 million viewers, easily the largest audience ever for the game.
For those inclined to believe that the television ratings play a role in which teams make the playoff, Florida State’s win over Louisville in the ACC Championship was the least-watched of the “Power 5” title games with 7.03 million viewers — still more-than-double last year’s Clemson-North Carolina matchup (3.47M).
Week thirteen games
The Ohio State-Michigan rivalry game averaged more than 19 million viewers on FOX, the largest audience for the matchup since their #1 vs. #2 meeting in 2006 and the second-largest on record. Even just on a household rating basis (e.g. excluding out-of-home viewing), the game’s 9.0 rating ranks as the third-highest on record.
Placing a distant second for the holiday weekend, the Alabama-Auburn Iron Bowl scored 9.0 million viewers — the largest audience for an SEC conference game this season and eighth-largest overall.
Week twelve games
For just the second time since week zero, no college football game last weekend managed to hit the six million viewer mark. Georgia-Tennessee topped the charts with 5.73 million on the SEC on CBS, followed by Michigan-Maryland on FOX “Big Noon Saturday” at 5.43 million.
Other notables in week twelve include season-highs for both BTN and The CW, which averaged 2.02 million for Ohio State-Minnesota and 1.33 million for South Alabama-Florida State respectively.
Week eleven games
With controversy swirling around the program, Michigan’s win over Penn State became the latest college football game to top the nine million mark this season as 9.16 million tuned in on FOX — the sixth-largest audience of the season. Penn State’s losses to Michigan and Ohio State both rank in the top six. FOX took the top two spots in week eleven of the season as its Utah-Washington lead-out averaged 5.17 million.
Mississippi-Georgia placed third for the week with 4.83 million on ESPN, the third-largest cable audience of the season.
Week ten games
The SEC on CBS dominated week ten of the college football season as LSU-Alabama averaged 8.82 million viewers and Missouri-Georgia 7.00 million. CBS owned three of the top four audiences in week ten as Ohio State-Rutgers neared four million in the Noon ET window.
As previously noted, Colorado had its least-watched game of the season as 2.77 million watched their loss to Oregon State on ESPN. That was still the weekend’s top college football audience on cable.
Week nine games
For the first time since “week zero,” no college football games cracked the seven million mark — or even six million — in week nine of the season. Georgia-Florida topped the charts with 5.95 million on CBS, followed by NBC’s Ohio State-Wisconsin at 4.87 million. Colorado viewership continues to pale in comparison to earlier in the season, but remained strong on Saturday as 4.66 million watched their loss to UCLA on ABC.
FOX may have made a mistake cutting away from Oklahoma-Kansas, which averaged 3.60 million before being pushed to FS1 in favor of Oregon-Utah, which averaged just 2.81 million.
Week eight games
Penn State-Ohio State became the fifth game this season to average at least nine million viewers, finishing just shy of the ten million mark at 9.96 million. In addition to ranking as the third-most watched game this season, the Buckeyes’ win delivered the seventh-largest regular season audience ever on FOX.
Also performing well in week eight, Alabama’s win over Tennessee delivered more than eight million viewers on the SEC on CBS — ranking as the network’s top game of the season, if down from last year’s higher-profile matchup between the teams.
Week seven games
Washington’s narrow win over Oregon topped the week seven college football viewership charts with more than seven million on ABC, becoming the 11th game this season to reach the seven million mark — more than all of last season (ten).
Notre Dame’s rout of USC was not far behind with 6.43 million on NBC. Colorado’s Friday night loss to Stanford did not crack the top five and was the team’s least-watched game of the season with 3.29 million viewers.
Week six games
The Oklahoma-Texas “Red River Rivalry” topped the week six charts with its largest audience since 2009 as more than 7.8 million viewers tuned in across ABC and ESPN2. Alabama’s dramatic win over Texas A&M placed second with over seven million on CBS. Colorado’s game against Arizona State aired on Pac-12 Network, which is not Nielsen-rated.
Week five games
Colorado again topped the college football ratings charts as the Buffaloes’ narrow loss to USC averaged 7.24 million viewers — the team’s smallest audience of the season, but still the eighth-largest overall. Colorado-USC comfortably outdrew the second-place game, Georgia’s closer-than-expected win over Auburn on CBS.
Notre Dame’s thrilling win over Duke on ABC placed third for the week, followed close behind by Michigan-Nebraska on FOX. LSU-Mississippi on ESPN rounded out the top five, topping Alabama-Mississippi on the same network in primetime.
Week four games
Colorado’s blowout loss to Oregon was the top ratings draw in week four of the season — at least going by the traditional Nielsen viewership — edging Ohio State’s nailbiter against Notre Dame later in the night. (Unlike the other networks, NBC’s streaming viewership is not included in its Nielsen estimates and is measured separately by Adobe Analytics. Including the Adobe Analytics streaming audience of 605,000, Ohio State-Notre Dame had the larger audience.)
The Nielsen-measured audience for Colorado-Oregon is the largest of the season, and Colorado has now played in four of the top seven games this season.
Week three games
Colorado’s double-overtime win over Colorado State dominated week three of the college football season with a season-high 9.3 million viewers, despite starting at 10 PM ET (and ending after 2 AM). It delivered the fifth-largest regular season college football audience ever on ESPN.
Georgia’s closer-than-expected win over South Carolina ranked a distant second with 5.4 million on CBS, followed close behind by Tennessee-Florida on ESPN at 5.3 million.
Week two games
Texas’ upset of Alabama was the top draw in week two of the college football season, averaging 8.76 million viewers across ESPN and ESPN2 — barely edging Colorado’s win over Nebraska earlier in the day on FOX (8.73M). The Colorado-Nebraska game won out in the ratings (4.8 to 4.5).
On the opposite end of the spectrum, NBC averaged just 665,000 for Charlotte-Maryland in primetime, one of the smallest primetime sports audiences ever on the network (if not the lowest). NBC barely edged out The CW, which averaged 617,000 for its college football debut.
Week one games
FSU’s rout of LSU delivered the largest audience of week one with more than nine million viewers on ABC Sunday night, while Deion Sanders‘ debut as coach of Colorado dominated Saturday’s slate with more than seven million on FOX. Full breakdown/analysis here.
Week zero games
Notre Dame’s rout of Navy was easily the most-watched game of week zero with a 1.9 rating and 3.56 million viewers on NBC. There were only five games on Nielsen-rated television in week zero, with the FCS MEAC/SWAC Challenge placing a distant second in primetime on ABC.
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 August 26 Navy-Notre Dame game in the average minute. As of the 2023-24 TV season, Nielsen estimates there are 125 million TV homes.
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: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012.
As a WSU alumni. Was curious how Washington state and Oregon state viewership rates amongst those in the power 5 this year. Is wsu and OSU bottom of the league?
Do you have the full season totals for particular teams? Like a top 10 teams viewed?
I’ll see if I can put something like that together later this season.
Do you happen to have South Florida vs UAB viewership info from this past weekend?
Hi Paxson — that’s on the chart. 143K on ESPN2.
Thanks Jon!
Sorry, see it is on the list. thanks!
No problem
Why don’t you add the streaming numbers to OSU-ND? ABC/ESPN numbers already include streaming so it’s not comparing apples to apples, and therefore misleading. Seems like it doesn’t fit the narrative people want to push that Colorado had the most viewed game of the year so far when that is actually false.
The charts are Nielsen-only and have been for the past several years.
Good tv ratings for Ohio state vs notre dame but last year had more viewers with 22 million viewers then 9 millon for this year that’s a huge drop from last year
No WSU v CSU?
No — that game aired on CBSSN, which is not Nielsen-rated.
Does the Pac-12 Network provide any ratings? I’d be curious to see how those games fared.
No, BTN is the only Nielsen-rated conference network.
Why did the SMU/TCU game have a N/A on viewership? It was a sold out game.
TV viewership isn’t related to attendance. Since that game aired on ESPNU, the viewership was too low to make any of the publicly available ratings charts I had access to at that time.
Tennessee has appeared in the top 5 multiple times. Twice Tennessee received the most viewers.
They were top 5 5 times. Ohio state was top 5 9 times. It just means more, even when they play Toledo. Ha
Is there any way we can go back to text or tables? I understand that it looks better, but with the images, it’s no longer possible to Ctrl-F to find a team?
Hadn’t thought of that. I can try, but the reason I switched to images is because it’s a lot easier (and far less time-consuming) to just copy from Excel rather than having to recreate the entire table in html. With the NFL, making the table is a relatively short task because there are only 7 windows max. With CFB, that gets pretty tedious.
Curious about ratings for houston, texas between the aac and sec championship games. Do the cougars pull eyeballs?
What was the rating for BYU at Utah State? Does CBS Sports Network not publish their ratings?
Nope, CBSSN is not Nielsen-rated up to now.
Rutgers this week finally got a good tv ratings since forever they never get good tv ratings like this they are least irrelevant team in tv ratings in college football
Were is Rugters tv ratings
Just added.
12/12/2020 Michigan State-Penn State was on ABC.
Also Fresno-St vs New Mexico should be FS1 and not CBS.
Thanks for catching.
It will be interesting to see if the SEC follows suit.
I noticed that the Big 10 network pops up a few times beginning in October. Are they subscribing now?
Since the start of the season, but their numbers are not publicly available via the usual sources yet. So I only get their numbers when BTN puts out a press release (+ SBD reported a handful earlier in the year).
EMU-NIU got 294k according to ShowBuzzDaily.
Have that in the chart already, but thanks for the heads-up.
What were the ratings for the Utah-Cal game?
251K viewers, rating was n/a.
Was the TCU vs Texas did hundred k
Before the 5 million viewers I saw it on Tuesday
based upon these numbers it appears that Oklahoma is the biggest draw on average
I noticed that as well. Looks like Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio St. and a few others are ratings gold for whichever network they are playing on.
Up or down from that window. Not the same match up. Not apples vs apples, yet gives solid data. Sharp look to the map!
Why aren’t there numbers for Penn State Vs Maryland game on 9/27 on FS1?
Just added.
Thank you! It’s so great having this information in one spot.
Please explain the +/- rating.
Up or down from the previous year.
Great resource! Thanks for putting it together.
Quick question: Do you have the BTN ratings for weeks 2 and 3?
No, not yet. I’ll see what I can find, but BTN figures not yet published by the usual suspects (ShowBuzz, etc.)
No rating for 2018 best college game of the year?? A&M vs LSU 7 Overtimes!!
It was not on a Nielsen-rated network.
No numbers for PSU v. UK (Citrus Bowl)?
Not yet. By next week for sure.
The Texas vs Georgia Sugar Bowl had a 7.8 rating.
That was the overnight — adding in fast-national ratings now.
Still no numbers for Houston-Memphis? The game was on ABC and it’s been a few weeks.
I asked around a few weeks ago and never heard back. I’ll try again.
What does it mean when the games have n/a for rating and viewers. Is the number just too small, Nielsen doesn’t provide a number then or how does that work?
Just means the rating was not available. Networks rarely provide them anymore — just viewership.
Why aren’t the ratings for the games on CBS SN ever listed?
CBSSN is not Nielsen rated.
Michigan had a lot of #1 weekly rated games and top 5 games in the ’17 year, even though they were WAY better in the ’16 year
Some good info!
What about numbers for other networks? Include DVR?
Texas hosted Tulsa on The Longhorn Network (ESPN owned) for week 2, but there are also other channels too.
How does it work if the same game is broadcast on 2 channels at the same time?
Might be interesting to have a cumulative rating to see after 4/5/6 weeks if there is any movement (I would think ND would be #1. Not sure if there is any correlation when the NFL has a special Thursday night game and lower viewership of College game).
All ratings include same day DVR. Longhorn Network and some other channels are not Nielsen rated, so we’ll never get numbers for those. As far as regional windows, numbers are for both games.
Stanford v SDSU on FS1?
Just added, thanks for spotting the omission.
I think Bama should have to play the Big 10 champ for game 1
agreed