Alabama’s 24-7 win over Florida State on Saturday night drew 12.3 million viewers on ABC, marking a 56% increase from 7.9 million viewers for the comparable Alabama-USC matchup in ’16. Alabama-FSU’s viewership total is also up big from 8.0 million viewers for the Saturday night matchup on ABC in ’15, which featured Alabama-Wisconsin. ESPN/ABC had an average minute streaming audience of 237,000 for Alabama-FSU, becoming the net’s most-streamed opening weekend kickoff game on record. Alabama-FSU also was ESPN’s second most-streamed regular season game ever (trailing last season’s Michigan-Ohio State) and was up 134% over the comparable Alabama-USC game last year in the same window. Meanwhile, Saturday’s early window game featuring Michigan-Florida drew 182,000 streaming viewers. ESPN also saw an increase in streaming numbers for its Utah State-Wisconsin matchup on Friday night. The game drew an average minute streaming audience of 319,000, up 96% from last year’s comparable Colorado State-Colorado matchup.
ENGINEERING A COMEBACK: ESPN last night drew a 3.3 overnight rating for Tennessee's come-from-behind, double OT win over Georgia Tech. That number is down 38% from a 5.3 overnight for last year's Labor Day primetime game, which featured Florida State beating Ole Miss. Two years ago, the game drew a 6.6 overnight for Ohio State-Virginia Tech. Tennessee-Georgia Tech had a streaming audience of 134,000 viewers.
FOX TROT: Fox on Sunday night earned a 2.2 overnight rating for UCLA's 34-point comeback win over Texas A&M, marking the net's best ever rating for a college football game on Labor Day Weekend. Meanwhile, FS1 earned a 1.4 overnight Saturday in the noon ET window for Maryland's upset over Texas, which was the top-rated college football game on cable that day (Josh Carpenter, Assistant Editor). Fox Sports VP/Research, League Operations & Strategy Michael Mulvihill tweeted that total Week 1 college football overnight ratings were "up 2.5%" over a record-setting '16 across all networks (TWITTER.com, 9/5).
STAYING AWAY FROM IT: SI.com's Richard Deitsch noted a N.Y. Times story published on Friday which "highlighted allegations of academic favoritism and fraud involving a half-dozen" of FSU's leading players in '13 "did not receive focus" during ESPN's coverage of Alabama-FSU. ESPN’s on-air crew was "far from the only group that did not discuss the story in-depth," as the story found "little traction nationally outside of a few outlets offering an abridged version." Newsday's Neil Best said, "There has been a continuous flow of such stories for over a century -- it's fatigue" (SI.com, 9/3).
KEEP IT MOVING: In S.F., Rusty Simmons notes early returns for the Pac-12's attempt to shorten the length of games "didn't show much impact." The seven games on the Pac-12 Networks during Week 1 were an "average of two minutes shorter than the five games that averaged three hours, 23 minutes during last year’s Week 1" (S.F. CHRONICLE, 9/5). THE ATHLETIC's John Walters wrote a college football game "should never exceed four hours in length," but the sport is "fast approaching that threshold." Ohio State’s win at Indiana on Thursday night "clocked in at 3:34" while Maryland’s upset of Texas "limped home in 3:53." Ideally, a 60-minute contest "should be played in three hours." Conference commissioners and TV execs would be "wise to huddle and discuss how to shave at least 20 minutes off the length of games" (THEATHLETIC.com, 9/3).
AN INSIDE LOOK: In L.A., Tom Hoffarth noted USC's podcast "Season of Sam," featuring QB Sam Darnold along with Pac-12 Networks' Yogi Roth, has the "intent to give listeners more insight into Darnold's thought process from the previous game, talk about his life in general, and also bring on special guests" (L.A. DAILY NEWS, 9/3).
