Big Ten TV Viewership Average Per Game

[IowaPackFan]

Regular season (excludes B1G Championship)

1. Ohio State — 5.55M
2. Michigan — 4.78M
3. Penn State — 3.31M
4. Nebraska — 2.39M
5. Iowa — 1.60M
6. Michigan State — 1.48M
7. Wisconsin — 1.45M
8. Maryland — 1.41M
9. Minnesota — 1.37M
10. Indiana — 1.18M
11. Rutgers — 977K
12. Illinois — 862K
13. Purdue — 694K
14. Northwestern — 464.7K

 

[General Tso]

Northwestern had that many?

 

[IowaPackFan]

B1G Championship brought in 10.022M viewers so if that was included Michigan would be at 5.18M and Iowa at 2.25M.

*Took average x 12, added the 10.022, then divided by 13

 

[IowaPackFan]

B1G’s future teams….

1. Southern Cal — 2.83M
2. Washington — 2.68M
3. Oregon — 2.067M
4. UCLA — 1.25M

Admittedly, these seem really low. West Coast on too late for much of US?

 

[IowaPackFan]

And for comparison, here’s Big 12…

1. Texas — 3.61M — Gone Next Year
2. Oklahoma — 2.40M— Gone Next Year
3. TCU — 1.42M
4. Kansas — 1.24M
5. BYU — 1.21M
6. Iowa State — 1.15M
7. Oklahoma State — 1.14M
8. West Virginia — 1.095M
9. Texas Tech — 950K
10. Kansas State — 810K
11. UCF — 621K
12. Houston — 587K
13. Cincinnati — 481K
14. Baylor — 454K

Next Years Additions

1. Colorado — 4.50M
2. Utah — 1.53M
3. Arizona State — 603K
4. Arizona — 434K

 

[IowaPackFan]

My surprises in all this…

1. As mentioned, west coast teams being so low. Maybe playing at 11AM or 2PM CST will give them more exposure.
2. Indiana having so many viewers because A) they sucked and B) They’re Indiana
3. Same for Michigan State, lots of viewers for terrible rotten team.
4. Nebraska having so many viewers. Everyone tuning in to see how the blow it in the end? Edit: I did some research and their numbers were aided bigly by their week 2 game vs Colorado (8.73M). Brings average to 1.81M if you remove Colorado game— still higher than I’d think.
5. Colorado being at 4.5 is, but isn’t a surprise. By end of year they were in the 700K range.
6. Texas and Oklahoma averaged 6M viewers. That’s equal to the current Big 12 next 5 combined.

 

[ichawk24]

All good info! What is your source?

 

[Titanhawk2]

My surprises in all this…

1. As mentioned, west coast teams being so low. Maybe playing at 11AM or 2PM CST will give them more exposure.
2. Indiana having so many viewers because A) they sucked and B) They’re Indiana
3. Same for Michigan State, lots of viewers for terrible rotten team.
4. Nebraska having so many viewers. Everyone tuning in to see how the blow it in the end? Edit: I did some research and their numbers were aided bigly by their week 2 game vs Colorado (8.73M). Brings average to 1.81M if you remove Colorado game— still higher than I’d think.
5. Colorado being at 4.5 is, but isn’t a surprise. By end of year they were in the 700K range.
6. Texas and Oklahoma averaged 6M viewers. That’s equal to the current Big 12 next 5 combined.

Indiana plays OSU, Mich and PSU, so people watch their games

 

[ClarindaA's]

My surprises in all this…

1. As mentioned, west coast teams being so low. Maybe playing at 11AM or 2PM CST will give them more exposure.
2. Indiana having so many viewers because A) they sucked and B) They’re Indiana
3. Same for Michigan State, lots of viewers for terrible rotten team.
4. Nebraska having so many viewers. Everyone tuning in to see how the blow it in the end? Edit: I did some research and their numbers were aided bigly by their week 2 game vs Colorado (8.73M). Brings average to 1.81M if you remove Colorado game— still higher than I’d think.
5. Colorado being at 4.5 is, but isn’t a surprise. By end of year they were in the 700K range.
6. Texas and Oklahoma averaged 6M viewers. That’s equal to the current Big 12 next 5 combined.

Nebraska Played Colorado, Oklahoma(I think) Michigan, Iowa. Iowa played…Michigan and Nebraska, and Penn state. In think the opponent helps

 

[IowaPackFan]

All good info! What is your source?

Gut feeling mostly.

I kid, I kid… LINK

 

[IowaPackFan]

Nebraska Played Colorado, Oklahoma(I think) Michigan, Iowa. Iowa played…Michigan and Nebraska, and Penn state. In think the opponent helps

It definitely does. I think a lot of it washes out in the end in B1G play though. The OOC has some more outliers. For example, when Nebraska and Colorado were scheduled they were both bottom dwellers so viewership would have been significantly lower if it weren’t for the Sanders effect— especially after they beat TCU who was ranked at the time, though proving to be straight trash.

 

[MeetTheFerentzes]

Ouch for Rutgers. About 20M people within a few hours drive from your campus, games against all of the big 3, and still can’t crack the 1M viewers average threshold, even when you have a pretty good season? Dang.

 

[MeetTheFerentzes]

And for comparison, here’s Big 12…

1. Texas — 3.61M — Gone Next Year
2. Oklahoma — 2.40M— Gone Next Year
3. TCU — 1.42M
4. Kansas — 1.24M
5. BYU — 1.21M
6. Iowa State — 1.15M
7. Oklahoma State — 1.14M
8. West Virginia — 1.095M
9. Texas Tech — 950K
10. Kansas State — 810K
11. UCF — 621K
12. Houston — 587K
13. Cincinnati — 481K
14. Baylor — 454K

Next Years Additions

1. Colorado — 4.50M
2. Utah — 1.53M
3. Arizona State — 603K
4. Arizona — 434K

BYU led the way for B12 teams without both TX AND OK on the schedule.

Too bad for AZ to have had such a great season and no one watched it.

B12 gonna be a heck of a MBB conference, though. Memphis should be in there instead of WV or UCF.

 

[mthawkeyes]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and venture a guess that games broadcast on Peacock have essentially zero viewers. Same when non-conference games are on the B1G alternates.

 

[QChawks]

people are attracted to punting

 

[Slappy Pappy]

BYU led the way for B12 teams without both TX AND OK on the schedule.

Too bad for AZ to have had such a great season and no one watched it.

B12 gonna be a heck of a MBB conference, though. Memphis should be in there instead of WV or UCF.

When you take away the boost all the teams get from having Texas and OK on the schedule, you may not have one team crack 1m viewer average. Colorado will help, but the Sanders effect will likely be short lived.

 

[pistachio1999]

Let's see how much the big war chests of BT and SEC draw even more of the top basketball talent in.

 

[IowaPackFan]

When you take away the boost all the teams get from having Texas and OK on the schedule, you may not have one team crack 1m viewer average. Colorado will help, but the Sanders effect will likely be short lived.

Valid point. It really makes no sense to have the P5 anymore. Obviously the Pac12 is done, but the Big 12 is trying to make up for quality with quantity. After Oklahoma and Texas leave it’s essentially Mountain West caliber.
Who are the big draws in the conference? BYU? Utah? TCU? Oklahoma State? Iowa State? Make fun of the B1G West all you want, but the Big12 conference is essentially that.

 

[pistachio1999]

Valid point. It really makes no sense to have the P5 anymore. Obviously the Pac12 is done, but the Big 12 is trying to make up for quality with quantity. After Oklahoma and Texas leave it’s essentially Mountain West caliber.
Who are the big draws in the conference? BYU? Utah? TCU? Oklahoma State? Iowa State? Make fun of the B1G West all you want, but the Big12 conference is essentially that.

The ACC will be relegated to oblivion also once that floodgate opens.

 

[Hawk_4shur]

B1G’s future teams….

1. Southern Cal — 2.83M
2. Washington — 2.68M
3. Oregon — 2.067M
4. UCLA — 1.25M

Admittedly, these seem really low. West Coast on too late for much of US?

Way too late for me. 🥱

 

[Hawk_4shur]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and venture a guess that games broadcast on Peacock have essentially zero viewers. Same when non-conference games are on the B1G alternates.

I watched on Peacock and so did Mrs 4Shur (no pics). My sons logged in on our subscription to watch.

So, that's 4.

 

[IowaPackFan]

BYU led the way for B12 teams without both TX AND OK on the schedule.

That’s just because they all have multiple wives so they have to watch in different rooms.

 

[Mufasa94]

Gut feeling mostly.

I kid, I kid… LINK

Writer states if no data available he gave them a zero. tOSU was on Peacock once and, and their numbers are never included on that one popular weekly ratings listing.

If tOSU can take a zero and still easily lead (granted #3 Michigan would have had one also), Wow.

 

[IowaPackFan]

Writer states if no data available he gave them a zero. tOSU was on Peacock once and, and their numbers are never included on that one popular weekly ratings listing.

If tOSU can take a zero and still easily lead (granted #3 Michigan would have had one also), Wow.

Counted as zero in numerator but added game in denominator? I assume they wouldn’t count in either.

 

[ichawk24]

Games on ESPN+ or Peacock or Paramount+ etc are considered unmetered and generally just ignored in both numerator and denominator.

 

[Mufasa94]

Counted as zero in numerator but added game in denominator? I assume they wouldn’t count in either.

Based on what was written, yes would be the answer to your first sentence. Just omitting/ignoring the game would inflate average values by not counting a low rating.

Games on ESPN+ or Peacock or Paramount+ etc are considered unmetered and generally just ignored in both numerator and denominator.

But a term like ignored isn’t what was written. He wrote “counted as zero”.

To answer the unknown, I totaled up tOSU’s weekly numbers and ended up with 66.63 million viewers for the season from 11 games with known values.
Result is 66.63/12 = 5.55 presented

Thinking about it, Bama and UGA likely had an SEC Network game as zeros, so the higher rated teams are at least compared relatively similar.

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

My takeaway is that more people need to f***ing start watching Iowa football.

Bunch a lazy bastards out there..........

 

[ichawk24]

Bama had their Middle Tennessee game on SEC Network, and their Chattanooga game only made the SECN+ stream.

 

[Mufasa94]

Bama had their Middle Tennessee game on SEC Network, and their Chattanooga game only made the SECN+ stream.

Wonder why the SEC Network (and others associated with ESPN) don’t get their ratings numbers determined, or at least made publicly available.

 

[Packer54]

B1G’s future teams….

1. Southern Cal — 2.83M
2. Washington — 2.68M
3. Oregon — 2.067M
4. UCLA — 1.25M

Admittedly, these seem really low. West Coast on too late for much of US?

I lived in So Cal for about 7 years. It’s a soft support market for college football relative to the number of people. Very similar to East Coast. The west coast has too much to do in beautiful weather. The East is consumed in Pro football.