College football has enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity in recent years…up until now.
According to a report from Front Office Sports (FOS), “FBS game broadcasts are averaging 1.6 million viewers across all Nielsen-rated networks,
which is down 11% compared to the first nine weeks of the 2025 season, according to audience measurement data Nielsen provided to Front Office Sports.”
After years of growth, college football TV ratings are down on nearly all the major networks this season.
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) November 3, 2026
The SEC continues to dominate and the Big 12 is up, but the Big Ten and ACC have tanked.
What's behind the decline? I did a deep dive on the data.
Gift link below.
Speaking of TV ratings, the Week 9 numbers are in from Nielsen:
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) November 4, 2026
Fla-Georgia (ABC): 7.1M
Ohio St-USC (NBC): 6.6M
Minny-Indiana (CBS): 4.9M
Miami-UNC (ABC): 4.6M
ND-Navy (ABC): 4M
Wis-Iowa (FOX): 3.3M
Ariz-T Tech (ESPN): 2.5M
Miss St-Texas (ESPN): 2.1M
ASU-BYU (FOX): 2.1M https://t.co/PWAphOLWKz
How bad have things gotten?
Game 7 of the WNBA Finals earned a whopping 3.3 million viewers. The significance of that? That is more viewers than any college football game on cable earned on Saturday. Even more impressive, and worse for college football, is the fact that the WNBA game was broadcast on the relatively weaker USA Network, as opposed to ESPN, or any of the other large cable networks that carry college football.
To what do we attribute this sudden reversal of ratings success? The Athletics’ Stewart Mandel has some theories.
“This season's September nonconference schedule was notably less exciting than in recent years, and it shows in the data, Mandel wrote. “The 48 nonconference games so far on those five networks have averaged 3.2 million viewers, down 9 percent from last season. Whereas the 76 conference games declined by a more modest 4.9 percent.
“Some of it can be chalked up to bad luck. Last year's Week 1 LSU-Clemson game on ABC was a close top-10 matchup that LSU won 17-10. It drew 10.5 million viewers, the fourth-highest of any nonconference game. When they met again a year later, Clemson was unranked and coming off a 7-6 season, and LSU won 51-10. The audience was nearly half (5.7 million).”
In addition to the weak nonconference slate, Mandel points out that some of the top teams in the Big 10 have taken a nosedive.
“The [Oregon] Ducks' flop, along with those of Penn State, Michigan and, before last weekend, USC, turned what could have been a blockbuster October Big Ten TV slate into a series of duds. While Ohio State-Indiana on Oct. 17 was a smash (10.4 million viewers on Fox), other blue blood-on-blue blood matchups like Penn State-Michigan (4.5 million on CBS) and USC-Penn State (2.9 million on NBC) were huge disappointments.”
This upcoming weekend’s slate of college games provides some hope for a reversal of ratings fortunes.
Notre Dame has a game in which their playoff fate hangs in the balance in a primetime matchup against hated rival Miami. Alabama and LSU will meet in a game that will leave the loser with three losses and, in all likelihood, outside the final field of 12.
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