Rumors of bowl season’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.
ESPN’s non-playoff bowl games are up 13% in viewership through Dec. 27, averaging 2.7 million viewers across its slate. Several games posted multi-year or all-time highs despite concerns that the expanded playoff would cannibalize interest in traditional bowls.
The Pop-Tarts Bowl led the way with 8.7 million viewers on ABC — the best non-CFP/New Year’s Six bowl audience since the 2019-20 Citrus Bowl. The Pinstripe Bowl drew 7.6 million viewers, its best performance on record. The TaxSlayer Bowl drew 6.0 million viewers, the strongest showing since 2009.
So, let’s put the Pop-Tarts Bowl in persepctive (8.7 million viewers on ABC for Georgia Tech-BYU):
🔲Better than any NFL game from Europe this season on NFL Network
🔲Better than Oregon-Penn State on NBC this season
🔲Better than Game 6 of Knicks-Pacers Eastern Conference Finals— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) January 2, 2026
The Rate Bowl (4.4M, best since 2011), LA Bowl (3.8M, best on record), First Responder Bowl (3.1M, best on record), Hawaii Bowl (2.7M, best since 2013), Go Bowling Military Bowl (2.5M, best since 2018), and GameAbove Sports Bowl (2.4M) all posted solid numbers that suggest bowl season remains appointment viewing despite player opt-outs and roster depletion.
Thru Dec. 27, @ESPNCFB‘s non-CFP bowl viewership is up 13%, averaging 2.7M viewers with several games reaching multi-year highs
🏈 @PopTartsBowl | 8.7M viewers⁰🏈 @PinstripeBowl | 7.6M⁰🏈 @taxslayerbowl | 6.0M⁰🏈 @RateBowl | 4.4M⁰🏈 @LABowlGame | 3.8M⁰🏈 @FRBowl | 3.1M pic.twitter.com/AH0LfKYINz
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) January 2, 2026
It’s a direct repudiation of Kirk Herbstreit’s recent argument about bowl oversaturation. The ESPN analyst revealed on his podcast that he once questioned the network’s bowl strategy at an internal seminar, arguing there are too many games and that bowls should be reserved for teams with 8-4 records or better.
That pitch, according to Herbstreit, “didn’t go over real well.”
The 13% viewership increase makes it pretty clear why ESPN ignored him. Bowl games, regardless of the teams or stakes involved, continue to draw audiences that dwarf most other programming the network airs during the holiday season. The theory that an expanded playoff would hurt non-CFP bowls doesn’t hold up after these numbers.
If college football is on, people are going to watch.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.