The return of college football satiated fans’ never-ending hunger for the sport, and the ratings reflect that reality.
Following a five-day Labor Day weekend marathon of games, ESPN publicly announced some of its viewership numbers Wednesday, with the network’s ABC games being featured primarily.
And as the schedule progressed, so did the ratings.
Colorado and Georgia Tech’s Thursday night thriller got things started with 3.7 million viewers, Alabama’s afternoon drubbing of East Carolina topped that at 3.8 million before the nail-biting finish between Auburn and Baylor reached 4.2 million.
But of course, Lane Kiffin and LSU‘s dominant victory over Clemson led the way with 5.8 million, as the public clearly can’t stay away from watching what the well-documented head coach does next.
And those numbers occurred during a generally light slate of top-tier games.
Week 2 presents a much more loaded schedule of Power 4 teams going head-to-head, with Arizona State at Texas A&M (noon ET), Alabama at Kentucky (3:30 p.m. ET) and Ohio State at Texas (7:30 p.m. ET) occupying ABC’s allotted time slots.
Given the fact that three SEC venues and four ranked teams are featured among those matchups, ESPN’s Week 1 ratings may be getting a run for their money.
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Parker is currently the sports editor for Gulf Coast Media in Foley, Alabama. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
