College football fans flocked to their TVs to see two ratings magnets Texas-Michigan clash
Longhorns-Wolverines set the early bar of most-watched game with 9.35 million viewers
Fox Sports officials wouldn’t sign off on the Texas Longhorns leaving the Big 12 one year early for the SEC without getting some payback.
To make the deal work, the Longhorns agreed to flip their home-and-home locations with the Michigan Wolverines so the 2025 game could be broadcast on Fox. The payoff was well worth it, if Fox’s ratings are any indication.
Fox Sports announced that Saturday’s game brought in 9.35 million viewers for the network’s “Big Noon Saturday” broadcast. It’s the highest rated game of the season so far but will be near the bottom when it’s all said and done come late January.
Not to be outdone, ESPN announced that 2.9 million viewers tuned in for the final hour of “College GameDay” from inside Michigan Stadium. On the ESPN broadcast, Michigan fan and Olympic superstar Michael Phelps picked his Wolverines to win while ESPN’s Lee Corso picked Texas.
Last season, the much-hyped Texas-Alabama game drew 8.76 million viewers on ESPN. That game was also the highest-rated of season at that point. It didn’t even finish in the top 15 when the final rankings were compiled by Sports Media Watch.
Michigan played in the three most-watched games of the 2023 season, with two games coming in the College Football Playoff and the annual clash against Ohio State. The Michigan-Alabama national title game drew 27.76 million viewers.
Texas’ semifinal matchup against Washington was the fourth-most watched game of last season, drawing 18.77 million viewers. The next Texas game on that list? Alabama.
Believe it or not, the Texas-Oklahoma State game did better than the Red River Showdown. Texas-OSU had 7.89 million viewers, according to Sports Media Watch, while Texas-Oklahoma had 7.88 million.
It will be fascinating to see what kind of number Texas puts up in the new SEC. The Texas-Georgia game in October should be a blockbuster.
Postseason games always do better than regular season games. This season, the new 12-team College Football Playoff format should shatter all previous college football viewing records. The first-round games will be held at the home sites of the higher seeded teams. All those games will still draw eyeballs, though.
