Saturday’s NFL games thoroughly outpaced college football’s debut 12-team playoff games in terms of viewership, clearly illustrating the superiority of the professional game over its amateur counterpart. NBC’s coverage of the Texans-Chiefs game averaged a robust 15.5 million, while Fox had the Steelers-Ravens game with an average of 15.4 million.
In contrast, the college football SMU-Penn State playoff game, broadcast on TNT, had a noon kickoff but averaged 6.4 million viewers. Later in the afternoon, Clemson and Texas drew 8.6 million viewers. Those figures show there is an enormous difference in audience choice between the NFL and college football.
The competitive edge that is absent in college games. The lack of competitiveness in Saturday’s college games might explain the disparity in viewership. SMU-Penn State and Clemson-Texas were largely one-sided affairs, leaving little excitement for fans seeking nail-biting finishes. Analysts argue that the 12-team playoff format exposes a talent disparity within college football, making upsets or close contests in the opening rounds unlikely.
NFL games, though not insulated from blowouts, ultimately bring more unpredictability in terms of the final product. For example, just last year, during that wild-card weekend, there were three underdogs with winning records, keeping everything somewhat suspenseful and more competitive than college football will have in its early playoff rounds.
Surprising Statistics For College Football
Despite the challenges, some college football playoff games fared well. Friday night, the Indiana-Notre Dame game averaged 13.4 million on ESPN and ABC. The Tennessee-Ohio State match Saturday night reached 14.3 million viewers as no NFL games competed at that time.
The weekend’s college football playoff games averaged 10.6 million viewers, which is a decent number but less than the NFL.
Future Of College Football
Though this year’s outcome confirms the NFL supremacy, college football leaders feel hopeful that they can refine the playoff format. Experts say that tweaks will make the early rounds more competitive and therefore viewers will be more interested in the early rounds.
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