‘Big Noon Kickoff’ made gains but ‘College GameDay’ still dominated the season

College GameDay continued to win the college football pregame show viewership battle over Big Noon Kickoff, despite the two-week YouTube TV dispute. However, both Big Noon Kickoff and College GameDay saw significant increases in viewership over last year.

According to Nielsen’s Big Data viewership, sourced from Sports Business Journal and the TV Media Blog, The Fox pre-game show averaged 1.8 million viewers, while ESPN’s show averaged 2.7 million viewers. Both were increases in viewership over last year.

The comparison comes with some key caveats, including the tricks BNK uses to compete with GameDay. The viewership comparison, for example, only includes the 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. hour of BNK. For Nielsen purposes, the 10 a.m.–11 a.m. hour is considered a separate show. Additionally, BNK viewership measurements extend past 12 p.m.

If you watched GameDay in Week 14, for example, and then flipped over to Fox at 12 p.m. to catch Ohio State–Michigan, you technically watched part of BNK. Their viewership average for that day was measured until 12:15 p.m. Generally speaking, outside of Ohio State–Michigan, BNK includes viewers watching on Fox until roughly 12:10 p.m.

That is worth mentioning because the most-watched edition of either pregame show was Week 14. That week, BNK averaged 4.4 million viewers, while GameDay averaged 3.0 million viewers. Both shows were in Ann Arbor. GameDay in Week 1, Lee Corso’s final show came in second with 4.0 million viewers. Outside Week 14, Big Noon Kickoff only beat GameDay in Week 10, before the Penn State–Ohio State game. That was the first week of the YouTube TV–Disney dispute.

In theory, the YouTube TV–Disney dispute may have helped College GameDay viewership in the long term. During and after the dispute, GameDay streamed for free on the ESPN app. One benefit of Nielsen’s Big Data measurement is that viewership on the ESPN app is recorded more accurately. GameDay also streamed on other platforms, such as X and TikTok, though Nielsen does not count viewership from those platforms.

It is not entirely clear how BNK can hope to match GameDay’s ratings fully. GameDay has been part of viewers’ habits for far longer and, unless you really dislike Pat McAfee or Kirk Herbstreit, the personalities on GameDay are simply better known. (Without checking, name the entire cast of BNK. I bet a nickel you can’t.)

That said, viewership for BNK remains significant. An average of 1.7 million viewers is generally good enough to match the 10th most-watched college football game in any given week this season. With Fox continuing to secure matchups such as Ohio State–Michigan, BNK can still outdraw GameDay under the right circumstances.

One notable difference is that Big Noon Kickoff flatly refuses to visit games that are not on Fox. GameDay has been criticized for its game selection, but it regularly travels to matchups that do not air on its networks. If BNK wants to be seen as something other than a naked promotion for Fox games, that may be worth considering in the future. It does not have to be SEC games either; a major Group of Five or FCS game could still provide an interesting draw.

As for how much Dave Portnoy is helping, in any meaningful way, attract more eyeballs, the Fox-Barstool relationship hasn’t proven that yet.

Overall, with viewership increases for both shows this season, both GameDay and Big Noon Kickoff appear to be in a good place. Significant changes to either show in 2026 seem unlikely.