College football loses marquee games as viewership falls

What Happened

Through games played Saturday, Oct. 3, college football had produced only two nonconference games between ranked teams, compared with a College Football Playoff-era average of 8.5 per season as average viewership through the first four weeks fell 11% year over year, according to Front Office Sports. The two games were Louisville-Ole Miss and Ohio State-Texas. Since the playoff began in 2014, excluding the 2020 season, college football has averaged 8.5 ranked nonconference games per season. The 2025 schedule had nine. Ohio State-Texas showed the ceiling for one of those events. Preseason No. 1 Texas beat preseason No. 5 Ohio State 24-23 on Saturday, Sept. 12, and drew 14 million viewers, the largest Week 2 audience on record. Texas reached 4-0, while Ohio State won its next three games to move to 4-1. The report counted only Ohio State-Texas and the conference game between LSU and Ole Miss above 10 million viewers. A year earlier, four games cleared that mark in the opening week: Texas-Ohio State, Notre Dame-Miami, Alabama-Florida State and LSU-Clemson. The next round of games, Saturday, Oct. 10, sends Texas to Oklahoma and puts Maryland at Ohio State. For ranked teams, conference play now has to carry more of the argument for a playoff spot because the early schedule offered so few chances to beat another highly regarded opponent.

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