Week 2 in college football featured a huge blockbuster matchup on Fox Sports with Big Noon Saturday taking in a rare game between the Texas Longhorns and Michigan Wolverines. Elsewhere, the Colorado Buffaloes got another national showcase on NBC in primetime, even though they got smoked by the Nebraska Cornhuskers. And College GameDay‘s strong start to the 2024 season continued.
Here are more insights into the ratings from Week 2 across the major networks and platforms.
Texas-Michigan sets pace for 2024
The game of the day, and arguably the biggest matchup in the early college football season, was naturally a huge winner for Fox and Big Noon Saturday. The Texas-Michigan showdown drew a massive 9.35 million viewers, which will set the pace as the most-watched game of the season until Georgia plays Alabama on September 29.
The 9.35 million number is well up on last year’s Big Noon Saturday average of 6.739 million. And the Fox showcase property should draw another strong rating with #4 Alabama traveling to Wisconsin being the unquestioned marquee matchup of Week 3.
Colorado still draws viewers… for now
Colorado and Nebraska once faced off as Big XII rivals. After a detour to the Pac-12, Colorado is back in the Big XII, but they appeared on NBC’s Big Ten primetime window with a trip to Lincoln to face the Cornhuskers. And if there was any hope that Coach Prime and the Buffaloes would match their 2023 hot start, they were quickly dashed in a 28-10 shellacking.
NBC touted 6.3 million viewers for the Big Ten Saturday Night game this week, the highest viewership number yet for the package. It should be noted that Ohio State-Notre Dame on NBC in primetime drew 10.6 million last year, but that was a Notre Dame home game and not technically part of the Big Ten contract.
While it’s an impressive figure, it’s down 28% from their matchup on Fox a year ago. And it might represent Colorado’s peak viewership in 2024.
College GameDay continues strong start
ESPN’s College GameDay made the trip to Ann Arbor, even though it was a Fox broadcast. And viewers showed up in the ratings department. GameDay drew 2.2 million viewers (2.9 in the final hour of the program) up an impressive 26% over the corresponding show from last season.
GameDay has been off to a strong start this season that began in Ireland for Week 0 then moved to College Station for the high-profile Texas A&M-Notre Dame clash. With a weak slate of games, it’s worth seeing how well that number holds up with even Paul Finebaum questioning this week’s trip to Columbia for South Carolina hosting LSU at noon on ABC.
Big Noon Kickoff drew 2.3 million final-hour viewers according to Fox’s Michael Mulvihill, keeping the competition for college football pregame superiority within striking distance.
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