The NFL average for a regular season game in 2022 was created 16.7 million viewers. The final college football competition didn’t get much better.
via Sports Business JournalMonday night’s game between Georgia and TCU, a 65-7 blowout in which the Bulldogs could have scored 100 if they wanted, drew 17.2 million viewers just across the various ESPN platforms that televised the game.
That’s down from the 22.5 million in last year’s game between Georgia and Alabama. It’s far less than the Ohio State-Oregon game that capped the 2014 season. This video had 33.9 million viewers.
It reaffirms the fundamental difference between the NFL and college football. It also shows what happens when the game is not good.
And for those of you who assume that the looming expansion of the college field from four to 12 teams will prevent an explosion in the title game, not so fast, my friend. It only takes one annoyance to turn everything upside down.
Think back to 1985, those of you who were alive then. The Bears and Dolphins were on their way to a Super Bowl rematch that was arguably the biggest NFL Championship Game ever. Enter the Patriots, who knocked out the Dolphins in the AFC title game – setting the stage for an embarrassing and boring Super Bowl XX game.
With more teams and more games, there is a higher chance that one of the two best teams will be knocked out before they can meet in the championship game. Along the way, there’s also the possibility that some preliminary games could be as bad as Monday night Cornell Hofstra was slaughteredWhen a powerful SEC company encounters the very best a mid-level conference has to offer.