2024 College Football Viewership Through Midseason: Two Conferences Matter

I told-you-so’s are always petty but occasionally necessary. Particularly when it comes to sharing receipts with Texas’ old parasitic stomping grounds of the Big 12. The same programs and media peddling the “Texas is so mean” narratives never quite understood or could admit that Texas and Oklahoma were providing the roof over their heads, their season ticket package attractant and all of those shiny facility expansions.

I’ve written many times (especially here) that the Power Four is a media creation, not reality.

There’s The Two Conferences That Matter and the other two (with a handful of individual team one offs) and the divide will grow over time. There are a lot of reasons for that, but TV sets are a primary factor.

TV eyeballs are a part of a virtuous circle – both a driver and a result- of the other reasons like program success, demography, recruiting, tradition, alumni intensity, broad appeal etc.

More evidence of that fact, compiled here by Football Scoop.

Here are The Most Viewed Games So Far By Conference Affiliation:

Appearances by conference
1. SEC: 28
2. Big Ten: 12
3. ACC: 6
4. Big 12: 2

Both Big 12 appearances in the Top 25 are Colorado. Don’t worry Brett Yormark, Deion Sanders will probably coach there for twenty five more years. They’re not a PR outlier, but a sustainable long term program!

40 of the 48 most watched teams so far are in the SEC or Big 10. That’s 83.3%. And the Big 12 would be blanked if not for a transient celebrity anomaly. The ACC is Clemson, FSU (ouch) and sometimes Miami when they buy a roster before their benefactor of the moment goes up on RICO charges.

And the ACC’s providers are all trying to leave. Is that bad?

The Big 12 is a Ponzi scheme without Texas and Oklahoma. The notion that Baylor, Texas Tech, Houston or TCU capture DFW or Houston, much less casual national interest, was never substantiated by anything real beyond their self-talk and Yormark’s peddling of Texas and Oklahoma Big 12 matchups with the aforementioned to networks as if they were equal participants in driving eyeballs.

Adding Pac 12 schools was fine, but not exactly visionary. They couldn’t get into the club either.

Television networks and their advertisers are learning who the real market drivers are. They didn’t properly factor in the post Texas/OU discount and their deals aren’t quite penciling out the same.

That’s part of the reason Yormark wants to add basketball powerhouses to build out year round inventory and peddle more hope.

Here are the Top 25 most watched games so far:

1. Georgia-Alabama — 11.99 million (ABC)
2. Ohio State-Oregon — 9.6 million (NBC)
3. Texas-Michigan — 9.19 million (Fox)
4. USC-LSU — 8.62 million (ABC)
5. Notre Dame-Texas A&M — 7.92 million (ABC)
6. Texas-Oklahoma — 7.63 million (ABC)
7. Clemson-Georgia — 7.58 million (ABC)
8. Georgia-Kentucky — 6.6 million (ABC)
9. Miami-Florida — 6.35 million (ABC)
10. USC-Michigan — 6.32 million (CBS)
11. Tennessee-Oklahoma — 6.27 million (ABC)
12. South Carolina-Alabama — 6 million (ABC)
13. Colorado-Nebraska — 5.67 million (NBC)
14. Tennessee-Arkansas — 5.29 million (ABC)
15. Oklahoma-Auburn — 5.04 million (ABC)
16. Alabama-Wisconsin — 5.03 million (Fox)
17. Florida State-Georgia Tech — 4.99 million (ESPN)
18. LSU-South Carolina — 4.94 million (ABC)
19. Auburn-Georgia — 4.93 million (ABC)
20. Texas A&M-Florida — 4.8 million (ABC)
21. North Dakota State-Colorado — 4.76 million (ESPN)
22. Iowa-Ohio State — 4.46 million (CBS)
23. Boston College-Florida State — 4.44 million (ESPN)
24. Penn State-USC — 4.28 million (CBS)
25. Ole Miss-LSU — 4.24 million (ABC)

Texas has two of the top six. Texas-Texas A&M will almost certainly be in the top 10 (likely top 5) at year end and a number of Longhorn games like Vandy (!), Florida, Arkansas and Kentucky have a shot at breaking into the bottom of the Top 25, dependent on opponent record and time slot placement. All four will likely be Top 50.

Georgia, Bama, LSU, Tennessee, OU and others are all certainly doing their part, too.

The SEC is a television juggernaut.

And the gap ain’t closing. It’s widening.