The 50 most-watched games of the 2023 college football regular season
We ranked the top 25 at midseason, and now with the regular season complete it's time to rank the top 50.
As should come as no surprise, Alabama and Georgia were the most-watched programs of the 2023 regular season. Of each side's 13 games to date, eight are among the 50 most-watched (Alabama played in five of the top 15), and their SEC Championship clash ranks second with an audience of 17.52 million.
The unprecedented star power of Coach Prime drove Colorado into the top five; half of CU's games were among the 50 most-watched. Prime's star burned brightly, then it burned out; each of CU's first five games were among the top 20, but only one Buffs game reached the top 50 thereafter.
Appearances by program
8: Alabama, Georgia
6: Colorado, Ohio State, Washington
5: Michigan
4: Florida State, Notre Dame, Tennessee
3: Florida, Nebraska, Oregon, Texas, USC
In the sports media space, the biggest college football story was the Big Ten leaving ABC/ESPN to split its games across Fox, CBS and NBC, along with the final year of the CBS on SEC package. That package was enormously profitable for both entities; the SEC isn't the S-E-C without it.
Not mentioned by the network was that it's the second time the network has made a penny-wise, pound-foolish decision with its football rights. In the 1990s, CBS owned the NFC package (the more valuable of the NFL's two conferences), let the NFL take the NFC rights to Fox, spent a couple years without the NFL, then bought back in by paying more for the AFC than it would've cost to keep the NFC in the first place.
Two decades later, CBS refused to beat ESPN's to put the SEC's No. 1 package on ABC at $300 million a year, and now will pay $350 million a year to split the Big Ten's No. 2 package with NBC.
I tell you all that to say: of the 13 CBS games to reach the top 50, the top 12 were SEC affairs.
Appearances by network
15: ABC
13: CBS, Fox
6: ESPN
3: NBC
And that leads into the final major college football storyline playing out on TV sets across America, realignment. 2023 was the final season of a 'normal,' Power 5 alignment before the SEC and Big Ten assume a 'Super 2' structure.
Appearances by conference, 2023 alignment
33: SEC
22: Big Ten, Pac-12
11: ACC
6: Big 12
Appearances by conference, 2024 alignment
37: SEC
35: Big Ten
11: ACC
9: Big 12
2: Pac-2
The most-watched game thus far not to involve a program that will be in the SEC or Big Ten in 2024 was Colorado's late-night overtime win over Colorado State, which drew 9.3 million. The most-watched game not to involve the SEC, the B1G or Coach Prime? The ACC Championship: 7.03 million watched Florida State's ultimately doomed attempt to remain in the CFP top four. That game ranked 22nd.
Without further ado, the 50 most-watched college football games of the 2023 regular season (all data via Sports Media Watch):
1. Ohio State-Michigan -- 19.07 million (Fox)
2. Georgia-Alabama, SEC Championship -- 17.52 million (CBS)
3. Colorado-Oregon -- 10.03 million (ABC)
4. Michigan-Iowa, Big Ten Championship -- 10.02 million (Fox)
5. Ohio State-Notre Dame -- 9.98 million (NBC)
6. Penn State-Ohio State -- 9.96 million (Fox)
7. Colorado State-Colorado -- 9.3 million (ESPN)
8. Oregon-Washington, Pac-12 Championship -- 9.25 million (ABC)
9. LSU-Florida State -- 9.17 million (ABC)
10. Michigan-Penn State -- 9.16 million (Fox)
11. Alabama-Auburn -- 9.09 million (CBS)
12. LSU-Alabama -- 8.82 million (CBS)
13. Texas-Alabama -- 8.76 million (ESPN)
14. Nebraska-Colorado -- 8.73 million (Fox)
15. Tennessee-Alabama -- 8.01 million (CBS)
16. Oklahoma State-Texas, Big 12 Championship -- 7.89 million (ABC)
17. Oklahoma-Texas -- 7.87 million (ABC)
18. Colorado-TCU -- 7.26 million (Fox)
19. USC-Colorado -- 7.24 million (Fox)
20. Alabama-Texas A&M -- 7.23 million (CBS)
21. Oregon-Washington -- 7.04 million (ABC)
22. Louisville-Florida State, ACC Championship -- 7.03 million (ABC)
23. Missouri-Georgia -- 7 million (CBS)
24. Florida State-Clemson -- 6.71 million (ABC)
25. USC-Notre Dame -- 6.43 million (NBC)
26. Georgia-Auburn -- 6.40 million (CBS)
27. Georgia-Florida -- 5.95 million (CBS)
28. Washington State-Washington -- 5.85 million (Fox)
29. Georgia-Tennessee -- 5.73 million (CBS)
30. Michigan-Maryland -- 5.43 million (Fox)
31. South Carolina-Georgia -- 5.42 million (CBS)
32. Georgia-Georgia Tech -- 5.33 million (ABC)
33. Notre Dame-Duke -- 5.32 million (ABC)
34. Tennessee-Florida -- 5.31 million (ESPN)
35. Utah-Washington -- 5.17 million (Fox)
36. Notre Dame-Louisville -- 5.12 million (ABC)
37. Florida State-Florida -- 5.07 million (ESPN)
38. Ohio State-Wisconsin -- 4.87 million (NBC)
39. Alabama-South Florida -- 4.84 million (ABC)
40. Ole Miss-Georgia -- 4.83 million (ESPN)
41. Washington-Oregon State -- 4.73 million (ABC)
42. Colorado-UCLA -- 4.66 million (ABC)
43. Ohio State-Indiana -- 4.65 million (Fox)
44. Ole Miss-Alabama -- 4.61 million (CBS)
45. Maryland-Ohio State -- 4.51 million (Fox)
46. Michigan-Nebraska -- 4.48 million (Fox)
47. Washington-USC -- 4.45 million (ABC)
48. Clemson-Duke -- 4.39 million (ESPN)
48. Iowa-Nebraska -- 4.39 million (CBS)
50. Texas A&M-Tennessee -- 4.38 million (CBS)
We'll be back in January to rank the 100 most-watched games of the 2023 college football season.