The SEC conference has dominated television ratings along with the top 25 rankings so far this season. They currently lead all of college football with nine teams in the top 25. So it should be no surprise that when the television ratings for week three of the college football season were released, the SEC was heavily featured. In fact, the top-four watched games of the week involved SEC teams.
SEC Dominates Television Ratings Again
Week Three
According to Sports Media Watch, the highest-rated game of the week was the Georgia at Kentucky barn-burner which had 6.6 million viewers. Alabama at Wisconsin was next highest with 5.03 million viewers. Arguably the best game of the week, LSU at South Carolina, was third bringing in 4.94 million viewers. Then Texas A&M and Florida were fourth with 4.8 million. They had two other games that cracked the top ten. UTSA at Texas was ninth with 1.48 million and Tulane and Oklahoma was tenth at 1.39 million. Even games against no-name opponents still rake in the viewership.
Week Two
TV ratings dominance is nothing new for the SEC this year. Their teams are the biggest draw in the country week in and week out. In week two, the Texas at Michigan game, where Quinn Ewers and the Longhorns dominated, was the highest-rated game so far this season with 9.19 million viewers. That’s not shocking given that Michigan is the defending National Champion and the game featured two top-ten teams. The ten most-watched games that week featured four other SEC games that ranked fourth through seventh. Tennessee at NC State with 2.96 million watchers, Arkansas at Oklahoma State at 2.80 million, South Carolina at Kentucky with 2.73 million, and USF at Alabama was 2.58 million. That’s a good week for most conferences but somewhat of a down week for the SEC.
Week One
Week one had the top-four games of the week including SEC teams as well with USC at LSU taking the top spot with 8.62 million viewers. That’s the second-most-watched game in all of college football this year. It did help that it aired alone on a Sunday night the week before the NFL started. The SEC again had the top four watched games of the week with Notre Dame at Texas A&M, Clemson at Georgia, and Miami at Florida rounding out the top four. Those games are the third, fourth, and fifth most-watched games so far this season. All this does is further exemplify the SEC’s absolute dominance over college football this year.
Bounce Back
But this is a bit of a bounce-back year for the SEC in television ratings. Of 2023’s most-watched college football games, only two of the top-ten featured SEC teams. The SEC championship between Georgia and Alabama ranked second with 17.52 million viewers. The only other game to make it was LSU versus Florida State which came in ninth with 9.17 million. Half of the top ten games featured Big-10 teams. In spots 10 through 20 in viewership, six more SEC games were featured, so they were obviously still doing well. But while the Big 10 dominated TV ratings in 2023, the SEC appears to be back on top in 2024. At least for now.
