ESPN announces college football Week 5 ratings, including Alabama-Mississippi State
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
ESPN’s numbers are in from its Week 5 college football matchups, led by an SEC battle between two of the conference’s top quarterbacks.
Alabama‘s win over Mississippi State in Starkville on ABC brought in an average of 5.1 million viewers, ESPN said on Tuesday. The broadcast ended up peaking at 6.3 million.
In primetime, Miami grabbed a relatively straightforward win at Clemson. That game, also on ABC, averaged 4.6 million viewers and peaked at 5.5 million. Meanwhile, Mizzou‘s win over Florida hauled in 4.4 million viewers while peaking at five million.
Two of Week 5’s games on ESPN proper averaged three million viewers. Tennessee‘s victory over Auburn peaked at 3.6 million. Notre Dame‘s win at North Carolina, a noon ET kickoff, had a peak audience of 3.4 million.
Week 6 has the potential to be a ratings winner for the ESPN networks. ABC will air a titanic game between No. 2 Georgia and No. 6 Alabama on Saturday, with a 7:30 ET kickoff from Bryant-Denny Stadium. Before that, No. 1 Texas and Oklahoma square off in the Red River Rivalry at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. The noon game on ESPN features Mizzou as it looks to hand Texas A&M a third loss in SEC action.
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.
