College Football Playoff delivers big ratings for ESPN, but slight drop off from 2020

Plenty of college football fans watched the College Football Playoff, as television ratings proved to be largely on par with last season, but slightly off as more than 16 million people watched each game.

John Ourand of Sports Business Journal reported those numbers, and noted that last year was 18.9 million for one game, and 19.1 million for the other. Alabama knocked off Cincinnati 27-6 in the Cotton Bowl in front of a television audience of 16.1 million, while 16.5 million watched Georgia beat Michigan 34-11.

CFP Semis
16.1 million for Bama-Cincinnati
16.5 million for Georgia-Michigan

Last year
18.9 million for Bama-Notre Dame
19.1 million for Ohio St.-Clemson

— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) January 4, 2022

Nick Bromberg of Yahoo Sports reported that since they’ve been the only semifinal games on New Year’s Day, the Rose and Sugar Bowls are the only semis that have drawn over 20 million viewers — no non-New Year’s Day playoff game has broken 20 million. And it’s unlikely that next year’s playoff games will come close to that mark no matter who’s playing. The Fiesta Bowl and Peach Bowl semifinal games are scheduled for Dec. 31, 2022.

Keith Farner

A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.