Notre Dame vs. Ohio State tops TV charts in college football Week 1
All eyes were on Columbus, Ohio, during the first full weekend of college football action. No. 5 Notre Dame and No. 2 Ohio State was quite a draw — in-person and on television.
Celebrities flocked in droves to the Horseshoe, from NBA superstar LeBron James to budding NFL star and former Ohio State Buckeyes/LSU Tigers quarterback Joe Burrow. But even those who couldn’t secure special field access or snag a hot ticket to be one of 106,594 in attendance were watching at home.
An average of 10.53 million viewers tuned in for the Irish’s 21-10 loss to the Buckeyes.
It was the most watched game of the weekend and the most watched game on ESPN’s networks since 2017. The viewership amounted to more than that of any 2021 regular season games outside of the 15.9 million viewers who watched Michigan beat Ohio State for the first time since 2011.
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The Irish and Buckeyes drew the second-largest Week 1 Saturday television audience ever, per ESPN. The second-most watched game of Week 1 was Florida State’s 24-23 victory over LSU on Sunday night. Former Irish head coach Brian Kelly‘s first game with the Tigers averaged 7.55 million viewers.
Notre Dame could be in for a few more big TV games in 2022. The allure of playing No. 21 BYU at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas is certainly intriguing for casual fans to Notre Dame diehards. The Irish also have No. 5 Clemson coming to Notre Dame Stadium on Nov. 5, and they’ll be on the road at No. 10 USC on Nov. 24.
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It’s likely none of those games will come close to this past weekend’s, though.
Notre Dame at Ohio State was a consensus top-five matchup. It featured a preseason Heisman Trophy favorite in Buckeyes quarterback CJ Stroud against a first-year Notre Dame head coach in Marcus Freeman, who also played linebacker for Ohio State from 2005-08.
Notre Dame and Ohio State are two of the biggest brands in college football and are only separated by just over four hours of driving time, but the two programs had only played six times prior to Saturday. Ohio State now owns a 5-2 all-time record against Notre Dame.
Irish defensive end Rylie Mills had some strong words about the matchup earlier this week.
“If we play our cards right and we prepare how we want, we’ll see that team again,” Mills said. “And if we see em again I think we know what will happen.”
This will surely happen: people watching.
