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National championship TV ratings revealed to be second-lowest since start of Playoff
By Keith Farner
Published:
Georgia’s win over Alabama in Monday’s national championship saw a large television audience, but another dip in the ratings historically since the College Football Playoff began in 2015.
Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal reported that the game on 3 of the ESPN networks averaged 22.6 million viewers, which is up from last year’s record-low of 18.7 million for Alabama’s win over Ohio State.
However, the more alarming issue is that, outside of last season, it was the least-watched title game since Southern Cal-Oklahoma in 2005.
The numbers beg the question about if the leaders in college football would consider moving the national championship game to Saturday in an attempt to increase the numbers, and possibly compete with the NFL.
Georgia-Alabama CFP title game averaged 22.6 million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU. Up big from record-low of 18.7 million for Bama-Ohio State in 2021.
Second-lowest since CFP started in 2015.
Excluding 2021, UGA-Bama is least-watched title game since 2005 (USC-Oklahoma) pic.twitter.com/xfovVok9L6
— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) January 11, 2022
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
