The ’11-12 college bowl season averaged 5.2 million viewers for 34 telecasts across Fox, CBS, ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, down 15% from 6.1 million viewers last year. Figures for the TicketCity Bowl are excluded from both years as the game aired on ESPNU, which does not report ratings on a game-by-game basis. While viewership for the five BCS games on ESPN was down 16%, ESPN and ESPN2 averaged 3.4 million viewers for 25 non-BCS games, down 9.2% from 3.7 million viewers last year. The most-viewed non-BCS bowl game on ESPN this season was the Baylor-Washington Valero Alamo Bowl on Dec. 29 with 6.9 million viewers, which also ranked as the net’s fifth most-viewed non-BCS bowl ever. Fox’ lone bowl game was again the AT&T Cotton Bowl, which was the most-viewed non-BCS bowl on TV with 8.4 million viewers for the Arkansas-Kansas State matchup last Friday night. That figure is down 17% from the LSU-Texas A&M matchup last year. CBS aired the Hyundai Sun Bowl for the 44th straight year, with this year’s Utah-Georgia Tech game averaging 4.1 million viewers, down 11% from the Notre Dame-Miami matchup last year. Listed below are the top 10 most-viewed non-BCS bowl games this season. Also see ratings and viewership for each bowl game this season.
| BOWL | MATCHUP | DATE | NET | RAT. | VIEWERS (000) |
| AT&T Cotton | Arkansas-Kansas State | 1/6 | Fox | 5.0 | 8,363 |
| Outback | Michigan State-Georgia | 1/2 | ABC | 5.1 | 8,174 |
| Valero Alamo | Baylor-Washington | 12/29 | ESPN | 4.4 | 6,923 |
| Chick-fil-A | Auburn-Virginia | 12/31 | ESPN | 3.6 | 6,155 |
| Champs Sports | Florida State-Notre Dame | 12/29 | ESPN | 3.3 | 5,228 |
| Insight | Oklahoma-Iowa | 12/30 | ESPN | 3.0 | 4,812 |
| Capital One | South Carolina-Nebraska | 1/2 | ESPN | 2.9 | 4,499 |
| Bridgepoint Education Holiday | Texas-Cal | 12/28 | ESPN | 2.7 | 4,263 |
Franklin American
Mortgage Music City | Mississippi State-
Wake Forest | 12/30 | ESPN | 2.7 | 4,214 |
| Hyundai Sun | Utah-Georgia Tech | 12/31 | CBS | 2.7 | 4,105 |
