College football is set up for another big weekend of games, which should continue to draw strong TV ratings following a major uptick in viewership early this season.
Through Week 2, total college football viewership across all networks is up 21% compared to last season, according to data Nielsen’s research team provided to Front Office Sports. That’s when using Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel measurement system for both this season’s and last season’s broadcasts.
Earlier this week, Fox Sports president of insights and analytics Mike Mulvihill predicted on X that “it’s pretty likely this will be a third straight year of record-breaking total viewing of CFB.” Mulvihill initially revealed total college football viewing is up 25% through two weeks; Nielsen told FOS those figures are when comparing Big Data + Panel from this season to panel-only data from last season.
Fox has the most-watched game of the season to date, a Week 1 record of 16.62 million viewers for Texas–Ohio State.
Saturday Slate
Several top-25 matchups could bring in big TV audiences this weekend.
NBC will broadcast No. 16 Texas A&M at No. 8 Notre Dame in prime time; last season, that same matchup in College Station drew 7.92 million viewers on ABC.
In the afternoon, ABC gets No. 6 Georgia at No. 15 Tennessee, which could draw the network’s biggest audience of the season, following three games topping 10 million viewers during a record Week 1 for Disney-owned platforms.
Meanwhile, The CW has a great opportunity to draw its most-watched college football game on record since first airing the sport in 2023. Thanks to its ACC media-rights deal, The CW will broadcast No. 18 South Florida at No. 5 Miami on Saturday afternoon. The 2–0 Bulls were unranked before upsetting No. 13 Florida, despite being paid $500,000 to play the Gators in The Swamp.
