You most certainly missed it, but back in February Nielsen announced that, for the first time ever, it had figured out a way to measure 100 percent of Out of Home television sets, an increase from 66 percent. College football television ratings are largely up from 2024, but that's partly because we're simply measuring viewers that didn't figure in the numbers until this year.
But at the end of the day, who cares? The television industry grows weaker by the day. The Oscars -- typically the most bankable non-political, non-sports TV event of each year -- will move to YouTube beginning in 2029. No matter how it's counted, TV ratings going up is a big deal in 2025. And the ratings were up. From when we started this project in 2023 to 2025, here's how the numbers have risen:
10+ million games: 8 (2023) to 22 (2025)
7+ million games: 30 to 38
5+ million games: 45 to 65
4+ million games: 66 to 90
Nothing can touch the NFL as a television product. But it's becoming increasingly clear by the year that nothing else can touch college football.
CFP as a TV product: a mixed bag. The idea that the college football season drags too long is a popular one (and I don't disagree), but viewers didn't mind a Jan. 19 title game as Indiana's thrilling win over Miami drew the largest audience since Ohio State beat Oregon to win the first 4-team CFP back in January 2015. Elsewhere, though, the Rose Bowl continues to out-rate the semifinals, and Miami's win over Ole Miss in the semifinal was the 11th-most watched game of the season. The James Madison-Oregon first round game was absolutely pummeled, drawing an equal audience to the New Mexico-Minnesota Rate Bowl, which aired against no competition the night after Christmas.
The championship game is never moving back to New Year's Day. As the season stretches longer and longer, a popular push has emerged to play the CFP through December and crown the champion at the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day. That is never going to happen. For starters, the FBS season has not ended on Jan. 1 since 1993. FCS has crowned its own champion after Jan. 1 since the 2010 season, and the Division III championship game is now played in January, too. Next season's Super Bowl will be played on Valentine's Day. As the television industry weakens while football grows in popularity, the networks are simply not in a rush to get football off their programming schedules.
Appearances by program:
13: Alabama
10: Georgia, Ohio State
9: Oklahoma, Texas
8: Ole Miss, Oregon
7: LSU, Miami, Michigan
6: Indiana, Tennessee, Texas A&M
5: Florida, Vanderbilt
4: Georgia Tech, Iowa, Missouri, Notre Dame, Penn State, Texas Tech, USC, Washington
3: Auburn, BYU, Clemson, Florida State, Illinois, South Carolina, Virginia, Wisconsin
-- The only Alabama games to draw less than 4.5 million viewers were their buy games against ULM and Eastern Illinois.
-- The durability of Indiana as a TV product will be interesting to watch in 2026. The Hoosiers "won" every round from the Big Ten Championship on, and while the 2026 B1G schedule is not out yet, the conference has already leaked that IU will host Ohio State in a title game rematch on Oct. 17.
-- Fourteen of 16 SEC programs made at least two appearances in the top 100, while a third of the Big Ten's 18 teams cracked this list once or not at all.
Appearances by conference
93: SEC
59: Big Ten
23: ACC
14: Big 12
3: American, Mountain West
1: Sun Belt
Appearances by network
53: ABC
19: ESPN
13: Fox
9: CBS
4: NBC
2: TNT
ESPN's 19 appearances come by default, given that the majority of the network's biggest audiences were exclusive windows -- the CFP, bowl games, or regular-season games on days other than Saturday. The biggest audience for a Saturday ESPN game was Clemson-Georgia Tech; its sister network ABC drew 43 larger audiences than that.
The championship game will move back to ABC for the first time since the 2009 season beginning next season, but the semifinals will remain on ESPN. Even as college football grows as a television product, the people in charge continue to find ways to screw it up.
1. Miami-Indiana, CFP National Championship -- 30.1 million (ESPN)
2. Alabama-Indiana, Rose Bowl quarterfinal -- 23.9 million (ESPN)
3. Miami-Ohio State, Cotton Bowl quarterfinal -- 19 million (ESPN)
4. Ole Miss-Georgia, Sugar Bowl quarterfinal -- 18.7 million (ESPN)
5. Ohio State-Michigan -- 18.4 million (Fox)
6. Indiana-Ohio State, Big Ten Championship -- 18.3 million (Fox)
7. Oregon-Indiana, Peach Bowl semifinal -- 18 million (ESPN)
8. Georgia-Alabama, SEC Championship -- 16.9 million (ABC)
9. Texas-Ohio State -- 16.6 million (Fox)
10. Oregon-Texas Tech, Orange Bowl quarterfinal -- 15.9 million (ESPN)
11. Miami-Ole Miss, Fiesta Bowl semifinal -- 15.8 million (ESPN)
12. Alabama-Oklahoma, CFP first round -- 14.9 million (ABC)
13. Miami-Texas A&M, CFP first round -- 14.8 million (ABC)
14. Texas A&M-Texas -- 13.04 million (ABC)
15. Georgia-Tennessee -- 12.58 million (ABC)
16. Alabama-Auburn -- 11.31 million (ABC)
17. Notre Dame-Miami -- 10.8 million (ABC)
18. Alabama-Florida State -- 10.66 million (ABC)
19. Oklahoma-Alabama -- 10.48 million (ABC)
20. LSU-Clemson -- 10.45 million (ABC)
21. Texas-Georgia -- 10.43 million (ABC)
22. Alabama-Georgia -- 10.42 million (ABC)
23. Ole Miss-Georgia -- 9.79 million (ABC)
24. Michigan-Oklahoma -- 9.67 million (ABC)
25. Michigan-Texas, Citrus Bowl -- 9.1 million (ABC)
26. BYU-Texas Tech, Big 12 Championship -- 9 million (ABC)
27. Oklahoma-Texas -- 8.73 million (ABC)
28. Georgia-Georgia Tech -- 8.72 million (ABC)
29. Georgia Tech-BYU, Pop-Tarts Bowl -- 8.7 million (ABC)
30. Oregon-Penn State -- 8.5 million (NBC)
31. Tennessee-Alabama -- 8.01 million (ABC)
32. Alabama-South Carolina -- 7.84 million (ABC)
32(t). Army-Navy -- 7.84 million (CBS)
34. Georgia-Florida -- 7.79 million (ABC)
35. Florida-LSU -- 7.64 million (ABC)
36. Penn State-Clemson, Pinstripe Bowl -- 7.6 million (ABC)
37. LSU-Alabama -- 7.54 million (ABC)
38. Penn State-Ohio State -- 7.19 million (Fox)
39. Alabama-Missouri -- 6.99 million (ABC)
40. Texas A&M-LSU -- 6.76 million (ABC)
41. Georgia-Auburn -- 6.69 million (ABC)
42. LSU-Ole Miss -- 6.69 million (ABC)
43. Ole Miss-Oklahoma -- 6.55 million (ABC)
44. Florida-Miami -- 6.46 million (ABC)
45. Vanderbilt-Alabama -- 6.41 million (ABC)
46. LSU-Oklahoma -- 6.38 million (ABC)
47. Tulane-Ole Miss, CFP first round -- 6.2 million (TNT)
48(t). Texas A&M-Notre Dame -- 6.12 million (NBC)
48(t). Auburn-Oklahoma -- 6.12 million (ABC)
50. TCU-North Carolina -- 6.07 million (ESPN)
51(t). Indiana-Penn State -- 6.03 million (Fox)
51(t). Miami-Florida State -- 6.03 million (ABC)
53. Virginia-Missouri, Gator Bowl -- 6 million (ABC)
54. LSU-Vanderbilt -- 5.94 million (ABC)
55. Ohio State-Washington -- 5.23 million (CBS)
56. Arkansas-Texas -- 5.61 million (ABC)
57. Indiana-Oregon -- 5.59 million (CBS)
58. USC-Oregon -- 5.43 million (CBS)
59. Virginia Tech-South Carolina -- 5.43 million (ESPN)
60. Tennessee-Illinois, Music City Bowl -- 5.4 million (ESPN)
61(t). Missouri-Oklahoma -- 5.37 million (ABC)
61(t). Oregon-Iowa -- 5.37 million (CBS)
63. Michigan-Nebraska -- 5.3 million (CBS)
64. Ohio State-Illinois -- 5.28 million (Fox)
65. Ole Miss-Mississippi State -- 5.23 million (ABC)
66. USC-TCU, Alamo Bowl -- 4.9 million (ESPN)
67. Texas A&M-Missouri -- 4.87 million (ABC)
68. Oklahoma-Tennessee -- 4.81 million (ABC)
69. Ole Miss-Kentucky -- 4.78 million (ABC)
70(t). Tennessee-Florida -- 4.76 million (ABC)
70(t). Clemson-Georgia Tech -- 4.76 million (ESPN)
72. Notre Dame-USC -- 4.64 million (NBC)
73. Wisconsin-Michigan -- 4.63 million (Fox)
74. Iowa-Vanderbilt, ReliaQuest Bowl -- 4.6 million (ESPN)
75(t). Vanderbilt-Texas -- 4.51 million (ABC)
75(t). Wisconsin-Alabama -- 4.51 million (ABC)
77. Iowa State-Kansas State -- 4.47 million (ESPN)
78(t). New Mexico-Minnesota, Rate Bowl -- 4.4 million (ESPN)
78(t). James Madison-Oregon, CFP first round -- 4.4 million (TNT)
80. Florida State-Virginia -- 4.39 million (ESPN)
81. Washington-Michigan -- 4.32 million (Fox)
82(t). South Carolina-Texas A&M -- 4.28 million (ABC)
82(t). Iowa-Iowa State -- 4.28 million (Fox)
84. Oregon-Washington -- 4.27 million (CBS)
85. Notre Dame-Arkansas -- 4.26 million (ABC)
86. USC-Illinois -- 4.12 million (Fox)
87. Rutgers-Ohio State -- 4.06 million (Fox)
88. Texas Tech-Utah -- 4.04 million (Fox)
89. Ohio State-Wisconsin -- 4.03 million (CBS)
90. Vanderbilt-Tennessee -- 4.01 million (ESPN)
91(t). BYU-Texas Tech -- 3.98 million (ABC)
91(t). Texas-Florida -- 3.98 million (ESPN)
93. Duke-Virginia, ACC Championship -- 3.88 million (ABC)
94. Boise State-Washington, LA Bowl -- 3.8 million (ABC)
95. Iowa-Nebraska -- 3.77 million (CBS)
96. Michigan-Northwestern -- 3.76 million (Fox)
97. San Jose State-Texas -- 3.75 million (ABC)
98. Georgia Tech-Colorado -- 3.74 million (ESPN)
99. Minnesota-Ohio State -- 3.7 million (NBC)
100. Kentucky-Georgia -- 3.68 million (ABC)