SEC, ABC Gobble Up TV Ratings as ‘Bama and Georgia Bury the Big Ten

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As much as Big Ten boosters never tire of talking up their conference, Americans seem to prefer watching the SEC on fall Saturdays. According to Nielsen data, the six most-watched college football teams rep the SEC, while 11 of the top 15 draws also hail from Greg Sankey’s conference.Tops among all schools is Alabama, which through 12 weeks has averaged 8.14 million viewers over the course of its nationally televised games. The Crimson Tide has a comfortable lead over its SEC mates Georgia (7.35 million viewers), Tennessee (7.03 million), Texas (7.01 million), Oklahoma (6.64 million) and LSU (6.42 million).The Nielsen deliveries are determined by way of its Big Data + Panel numbers, which in September became the transactional currency against which some $69.6 billion in TV advertising is bought and sold. Through last week, overall college football deliveries are up 2% versus the analogous period in 2024; worth noting, that bump is entirely organic as the year-to-year comps were made against BD+P estimates for leading college football partners ABC, Fox, CBS, NBC and the ESPN-branded networks.Ohio State owns bragging rights as the most-watched non-SEC program, as the Buckeyes are averaging 5.49 million viewers per game. While the similarly unscathed Indiana (8-0 in the Big Ten, 11-0 overall) is on a collision course with the five-time conference champs—the championship game is set for Dec. 6 on Fox—the upstart Hoosiers do not currently rank among football’s 20 biggest draws. Nor does fellow Big Tenner Oregon, which also seems all but assured of an invite to the College Football Playoff.Rounding out the top 10 are the struggling ACC squad Florida State (2-6, 5-6), which is slated ninth thanks in large part to its 31-17 upset of Alabama on Aug. 30, and indie stalwart Notre Dame (9-2). With an average delivery of 10.66 million viewers, ABC’s broadcast of the Seminoles’ home win against ‘Bama is the season’s fourth biggest draw, trailing only Fox’s Texas-Ohio State blockbuster (16.62 million viewers), ABC’s Georgia-Tennessee game (12.58 million) and Notre Dame-Miami (10.81 million, also on ABC).Except for Fox’s Big Noon opener, ABC has carried each of the top 10 most-watched college football games through Week 12.The top draws for the other leading networks include the Sept. 27 Oregon-Penn State game (8.5 million for NBC’s Big Ten Saturday Night window, which includes 7.98 million viewers on the flagship network) and TCU-North Carolina on ESPN (6.07 million). CBS’s top CFB draw to date is Indiana-Oregon, which averaged 5.59 million viewers in the 3:30 p.m. ET slot on Oct. 11.If the SEC’s dominance over the Nielsen ratings is a case of water: wet/sky: blue, the conference’s popularity has ESPN seeing dollar signs as the postseason field begins to take shape. A case can be made for at least five SEC teams (Texas A&M, Georgia, Ole Miss, ‘Bama, Oklahoma) cracking the CFP selection committee’s Dirty Dozen, where they’ll likely be joined by Ohio State, Indiana and Oregon. Michigan will have to beat heavy home favorites (-11.5) Ohio State in The Game and get some outside help if it’s to have even an outside chance of defending its title in Miami Gardens.Elsewhere, ratings mainstay Notre Dame’s looking like a safe bet after burying Syracuse 70-7 on Saturday, while the Big 12 may send some combination of BYU, Texas Tech and/or Utah to the dance. Lastly, there’s a non-zero chance that the ACC gets shut out altogether, as its top-ranked teams are currently on the wrong side of the playoff bubble. Of course, the selection committee has final say over who grabs a spot in the bracket and who suits up for a lesser bowl game, and in the interest of sidestepping a whole lot of fuss from the higher-ups in Charlotte, the 13 members will probably do everything in their power to ensure that one ACC team (Miami or Virginia or Georgia Tech or Pitt) gets promoted as an at-large bid.However things shake out in the basketball conference, an SEC-heavy draw would be a shot in the arm for ESPN and its CFP advertisers. The money’s already piling up; per EDO Ad EnGage estimates, the leading college football TV partners have booked some $860 million in ad revenue since the season began, up nearly $24 million compared to the amount of dollars raked in during the year-ago period.

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