Overnights: Nebraska-Penn State Marks ESPN's Best Noon CFB Game On Record

ESPN’s Nebraska-Penn State telecast on Saturday earned a 3.8 overnight Nielsen rating, marking the net’s highest-rated college football game in the 12:00pm ET window on record (dating back to ’01). The previous season-high had been a 3.6 overnight for the Oct. 15 Michigan-Michigan State game. The Nebraska-PSU game topped CBS’ Florida-South Carolina (1.9 rating) and ABC’s regionalized coverage (1.6 rating) in the same window. ABC’s Oregon-Stanford game on Saturday night earned a 5.9 overnight, marking the highest-rated non-NFL sports telecast over the weekend. The game aired opposite the debut of “UFC on Fox,” NBC’s Maryland-Notre Dame football game and the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez PPV bout. ESPN also scored well with its North Carolina-Michigan State Quicken Loans Carrier Classic, averaging a 2.4 overnight on Friday. The net’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Kobalt Tools 500 from Phoenix Int’l Raceway earned a 2.7 overnight yesterday afternoon, up 12.5% from the same race last year.

Listed below are overnight Nielsen ratings from weekend sports telecasts on broadcast TV.