Cold, hard facts show that Florida State’s upset win over Alabama captured the eyes of the nation
A lot of attention was focused on Tallahassee last Saturday.
The Florida State Seminoles delivered one of the biggest and most notable Week One upsets in recently memory, toppling Alabama 31-17. Despite being 13.5-point underdogs, Florida State was the team that led early and controlled the game by the end of the first quarter onward.
The viewership numbers for Week One show that the nation was captivated by the performance. According to ESPN’s PR department, the Seminoles-Crimson Tide clash was the second-highest game on the ESPN-ABC family of networks for the record-setting day.
Florida State vs. Alabama was the second-highest rated game on ESPN/ABC with 10.7 million viewers
Florida State and Alabama managed to capture 10.7 million viewers last Saturday. That’s particularly notable given the game time. One would expect a top 10 clash between LSU and Clemson in a primetime spot on ABC to carry the day for the network, but FSU-Alabama topped in from the busier and less advantageous 3:30 pm ET spot. That’s an eye opener.
But the interest in the game is understandable for a number of reasons. Obviously, FSU and Alabama are marquee brands in the sport. Florida State is coming off its worst season in half a century at 2-10, and Mike Norvell has a new-look team led by Boston College transfer QB Thomas Castellanos. Oh, yeah, and Castellanos made some waves in the offseason with comments about how Nick Saban wasn’t there to save them anymore.
Well, Castellanos turned out to be right, and word obviously spread among fans across the country about a brewing upset, with people tuning into witness it. And they saw a Florida State team that couldn’t have looked any different than the 2024 version.
The numbers obviously will be a shell of that this week against East Texas A&M, but it’s clear that Florida State sent a message to the country last weekend. And plenty 0f people received it.
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