College Football TV Ratings: Most Watched Games of Week 5 Feat Colorado-USC, Notre Dame-Duke & More
There's no disputing that college football has been taken to a new level this season in terms of eyeballs. With more excitement in Power Five football and the death of the Pac-12 Conference, the season is going to be remembered for a multitude of reasons.
However, Week 5, in particular, had a lot of different college football games that had a lot of attention and viewership. Let's have a look at the top five according to Sports Media Watch and discuss why they were able to draw in a bunch of eyeballs.
Ranking the most watched college football games of Week 5
#5 LSU vs Mississippi (3.72 million)
The fifth-most watched game of college football in Week 5 was the LSU Tigers and the Ole Miss Rebels, two ranked programs that had an incredible array of offense.
People love offense, and a 55-49 game is always exciting to watch. Airing at a relatively dead time of 6:00 pm ET also helps and being on ESPN got it a bump in viewership as well.
#4 Michigan vs Nebraska (4.48 million)
The Michigan Wolverines and the Nebraska Cornhuskers is a solid Big Ten rivalry, but people were interested in the dominance of the Wolverines.
It also helps having the game leading into this one garner some extra viewers, which we will talk about later. What doesn't help is that this game was never in the balance so people likely left as the game continued and Michigan continued its dominance.
#3 Notre Dame vs Duke (5.32 million)
Having the College GameDay crew in attendance definitely added a spark to the viewership and two ranked foes battling led to a huge game.
The injury to Duke quarterback Riley Leonard also added intrigue to the game, but it being at the end of the game didn't really help the viewership. Waiting for Sportscenter also probably gave this game a late number on ESPN, but it definitely had a lot of fanfare nonetheless.
#2 Georgia vs Auburn (6.4 million)
The Georgia Bulldogs and the Auburn Tigers have a strong rivalry with a lot of solid players.
The fact that the game was close, as the top-ranked Bulldogs were tied with three minutes in the fourth quarter, definitely created more of a buzz. The SEC also is a massive hotbed for football, and people viewing from the blowout that was Michigan vs Nebraska makes sense as well.
#1 USC vs Colorado (7.24 million)
Does it even need explaining why the USC Trojans and the Colorado Buffaloes got so many viewers?
Coach Deion Sanders has made Colorado into a hotbed of college football attention and going up against the top quarterback in Caleb Williams definitely helped.
This game was the only matchup to get to a 4.0 rating and being broadcast on FOX made it a lot easier for people to find the game.