College football’s Week 9 delivers successes across ESPN and ABC

Ratings are up big-time this year in the college football world.

According to a press release from ESPN’s media zone, the sports network giant’s ratings were up 56 percent on Saturday, and ABC aired the highest-rated prime-time game, marking the eighth consecutive week that the two companies aired the sport’s highest-rated prime-time game.

Both ESPN and ABC combined to air three of the four highest-rated games over the weekend, while the former’s entire seven-game schedule represented cable’s seven highest-rated games in Week 9.

Here’s the rest of the release:

ESPN’s Collective 56% Ratings Increase on Saturday a Result of Individual Window Successes: Noon, Late Afternoon and Primetime All Up Significantly Year-Over-Year
ESPN’s collective 56% ratings increase on Saturday was generated by individual game window successes, with the network’s noon, late afternoon and primetime windows all up significantly year-over-year. Iowa at Penn State (3;30 p.m. ET) delivered a 1.8 overnight, cable’s highest-rated game in the last afternoon time slot this season and up 157% from the same game window last year. The network’s primetime audience was up 63% year-over-year for Texas A&M at Mississippi State (7 p.m.) and its early window audience up 23% for Purdue at Michigan State (noon). The Boilermakers-Spartans game delivered a 1.6 overnight, while the Aggies-Bulldogs earned a 1.3, representing the second and third highest-rated cable games of the week, respectively.

ABC’s Saturday Night Football Continues to Lead in Primetime; Network Began Saturday with Sport’s Highest-Rated Game in Early Window
ABC’S Saturday Night Football featuring Texas at Oklahoma State (8 p.m.) and Clemson at Florida State (noon) were the highest-rated primetime and noon window games, respectively, on any network for the week. The 2.5 overnight for the Tigers-Seminoles game topped its broadcast competition by 48% in that same window, while also equaling ABC’s rating for the same game window last year in week 9. The Longhorns-Cowboys matchup generated a 2.4 overnight, also keeping pace with the network’s Saturday Night Football game from the same week last season.

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Tyler Waddell

Tyler has covered college football on a freelance basis since 2010. In addition to Saturday Football, his work has been featured on ESPN Radio, Bleacher Report, Yahoo! Sports, Cox Media Group, Athlon Sports, and more.