College GameDay brings in massive ratings for Week 7 episode ahead of BYU-Notre Dame
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
College GameDay’s visit to Provo, Utah, in Week 7 was its first in nearly two decades.
The long-running ESPN studio show, in town for BYU’s Week 7 contest against Notre Dame, hadn’t been to Provo since 2009. But a Top 10 showdown between the No. 8 Cougars and the No. 2 Fighting Irish — a BYU win — was too good to pass up.
It turned out to be a ratings winner. Per ESPN, Saturday’s episode was the third-highest-rated regular-season show in the program’s history. It averaged three million viewers and peaked at 3.9 million during the last hour.
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Saturday marked GameDay’s first trip to the state of Utah. It won’t be its last. In fact, it will be in Salt Lake City for Week 8’s game between Utah and Houston, two teams looking to position themselves not just in the Big 12 race, but in the College Football Playoff race as well. It will mark the second straight year the Utes have hosted the program and their third time hosting in the last four seasons. (And yes, that’s two straight visits to Big 12 cities if you’re scoring at home.)
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
