College Football TV Ratings: Top 10 most-watched bowls through December 31

College football’s bowl season is just about in the books, as we only have the National Championship game left to play between Washington and Michigan. Before our one final college football bowl game, let’s take a look at which ones drew the most eye balls prior to the New Year.

Full data was not yet available on a few of the bowls, including the College Football Playoff semifinal games and the Citrus Bowl between Tennessee and Iowa, as well as the ReliaQuest Bowl between Wisconsin and LSU. Otherwise, though, you can check out exactly how many people watched the rest of the bowl games.

Thanks to our friends at Sports Media Watch, Take a look at how all 19 bowl games shook out in the television world, starting with a few SEC victories:

1. Orange Bowl

Georgia 63, Florida State 3. The Bulldogs absolutely smashed Florida State in front of the largest non-CFP bowl audience as the beatdown drew a 5.2 rating and featured 10.39 million viewers on ESPN back on Dec. 30.

The result itself was probably the most noteworthy of the entire bowl season. FSU entered the game coming off of weeks of complaints, legal threats and sheer anger towards the CFP committee for leaving their undefeated squad out. But that fire was certainly missing during their final game of the season as Georgia laid a worse smack-down than they did in the 2023 national title game.

2. Cotton Bowl

Missouri 14, Ohio State 3. The Tigers were able to cap off a dream 11-2 season with this New Year’s Six bowl victory over Ohio State, which drew a 4.9 rating and 9.72 million viewers on ESPN on the evening of Dec. 29.

With the lethal Missouri offense, plus the plenty of talent OSU has on that side of the ball, a contest featuring 17 total points is far from what folks expected, but it’s what we got. A defensive showdown where Missouri just scraped by past a Buckeye team on its QB3.

3. Peach Bowl

Ole Miss 38, Penn State 25. The SEC West counterpart to Mizzou, Ole Miss also locked down an 11-2 season by toppling the third-best Big Ten team in front of 7.77 million fans on TV in a game which drew a 4.3 rating.

Man, fans really liked watching SEC teams kick butt in these big bowl games. But had Ole Miss not built up a sizeable second-half lead, it’s very possible this game would have jumped even higher in the list. The Rebels had virtually no trouble with a defense that flustered Big Ten teams all season long, getting up 38-17 midway thru the fourth quarter before PSU added a consolation TD.

4. Pop-Tarts Bowl

Kansas State 28, NC State 19. With TV coverage anchored around what was supposed to be an edible mascot, this bowl drew a 2.3 rating and 4.31 million total viewers on ESPN back on Dec. 28.

This is the odd one out of the top five, as the other four were marquee matchups between top-15 teams, mostly in New Year’s Six bowls. Except the masses gathered on a Thursday afternoon/evening to watch a giant Pop Tart mascot be toasted live in a massive toaster — and maybe they saw a splash of football too.

5. Alamo Bowl

Arizona 38, Oklahoma 24. The Wildcats kept surging, winning their seventh straight game to end the year as they toppled Oklahoma in a game which drew 2.2 rating and 3.93 million unique viewers.

Arizona absolutely finished the season as one of the hottest, and arguably best, teams in the entire country. Once redshirt freshman Noah Fifita came in at QB thanks to an injury, the ‘Cats took off like a rocket and didn’t lost again. With him at QB for the whole season, are we talking about another Pac-12 team that could have made their way into the playoff? There’s really no evidence to counter.

6. Mayo Bowl

West Virginia 30, North Carolina 10. This mid-tier bowl blowout still managed to draw a 2.0 rating and 3.84 million viewers, and I think we all know why. Whether it’s an edible mascot for a mayonnaise bath, it’s clear the food stunts worked during 2023 bowl season.

In the actual game, Garrett Greene kicked things off with a 75-yard bomb to Traylon Ray to score a Mountaineer touchdown on the first play from scrimmage — and they never looked back en route to the blowout win. WVU finishes 9-4 as head coach Neal Brown comes up in a massive way after rumors of his firing heated up last offseason.

7. Liberty Bowl

Memphis 36, Iowa State 26. This matinee kickoff between the Tigers and Cyclones drew a 1.9 rating and 3.60 million pairs of eye balls.

Memphis actually dominated this game for the most part, all starting with Seth Henigan. He scored on a 70-yard touchdown reception and a 51-yard touchdown reception with the passes coming from different QBs. Plus, he scored a rushing touchdown — all in the first quarter to give Memphis a 19-0 lead. It would balloon to 36-13 at one point before ISU added a pair of late TDs.

8. Holiday Bowl

USC 42, Louisville 28. In what could be called the Miller Moss Bowl, USC’s win over Louisville drew a 1.9 rating and 3.51 million viewers to its FOX broadcast.

Moss, the USC quarterback elevated to starter in place of the opted-out Caleb Williams, delivered big time. The Trojans have been in the market for a quarterback in the transfer portal, but with the Moss performance, including some long laser TD throws, perhaps Lincoln Riley doesn’t have to go looking anywhere else for his next star quarterback.

9. Gator Bowl

Clemson 38, Kentucky 35. In one of the more exciting bowl games, perhaps the most exciting, Clemson narrowly outlasted Kentucky on a Friday afternoon, drawing a 1.9 rating and 3.43 million viewers to their noontime kickoff.

This college football game was drunk, bonkers, off the wall, any superlative you can find for absolute madness, it would apply to this football game. Kentucky entered the fourth quarter leading 21-10 and scored two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter, yet allowed 28 points to Clemson thanks to three consecutive Wildcat turnovers and a converted 3rd and 18 on the Tigers’ final possession.

10. Sun Bowl

Notre Dame 40, Oregon State 8. This lopsided win for the Fighting Irish against one of the only remaining Pac-12 teams drew a 1.8 rating and 3.26 million viewers.

An 8-2 start for Oregon State devolved pretty quickly into a very disappointing end to the year. Just a month and a half ago, OSU was 8-2 with a shot at the Pac-12 title game if they could topple Oregon and Washington. Well, they lost both of those games, lost their head coach and quarterback, then got humiliated by 32 points in the bowl game. Meanwhile, ND showed off plenty of its younger offensive playmakers in a great day for the future of their program.

11-19 Rankings for College Football bowl ratings

Format: Bowl (rating, viewers [millions]) — result

11. Texas Bowl (1.6 rtg, 3.08m) — Oklahoma State 31, Texas A&M 23
12. Pinstripe Bowl (1.7 rtg, 3.0m) — Rutgers 31, Miami 24
13. First Responder Bowl (1.4 rtg, 2.8m) — Texas State 45, Rice 21
14. Cactus Bowl (1.4 rtg, 2.69m) — Kansas 49, UNLV 36
15. Music City Bowl (1.4 rtg, 2.63m) — Maryland 31, Auburn 13
16. Military Bowl (1.3 rtg, 2.26m) — Virginia Tech 41, Tulane 20
17. Detroit Bowl (1.3 rtg, 2.23m) — Minnesota 30, Bowling Green 24
18. Fenway Bowl (0.9 rtg, 1.46m) — Boston College 23, SMU 14
19. Arizona Bowl (0.6 rtg, 1.10m) — Wyoming 16, Toledo 15

Another great bowl season is almost in the books!