NFL Wins Ratings War Over College Football Despite 12-Team Playoff Format
The NFL emerged victorious in the ratings war last Saturday, as two of its games drew significantly higher viewership numbers than the first round of the college football playoffs. The College Football Playoff’s 12-team format made its debut, but it failed to attract nearly the same number of viewers as the NFL.
SMU and Penn State’s 12 p.m. ET matchup on TNT averaged 6.4 million viewers, while the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans game on NBC at 1 p.m. ET drew 15.5 million viewers. The Steelers and Ravens game on FOX at 4:30 p.m. ET averaged 15.4 million viewers, while the Clemson-Texas game on TNT at the same time drew 8.6 million viewers.
However, when the NFL wasn’t competing with college football, its ratings soared. Indiana-Notre Dame’s Friday night matchup averaged 13.4 million viewers on ABC/ESPN, and Tennessee-Ohio State drew 14.3 million viewers on the same network.
The overall average for the first round of the College Football Playoffs was 10.6 million viewers, which is higher than all but four college games this season. The NFL will continue to clash with college football this Saturday, as three of its games will compete with a slate of bowl games.