Dave Portnoy has claimed ‘nobody cared’ about Monday’s national championship game between Ohio State and Notre Dame after grim viewing figures emerged on Wednesday.
Ohio State’s 34-23 victory in Atlanta was the most-watched game of the college football season. However, it was a double-digit drop in viewers from last year.
ESPN announced Wednesday that the Buckeyes’ second national championship in the CFP era averaged 22.1million viewers.
It was the most-watched, non-NFL sporting event over the past year, but a 12 per cent drop from the 25 million who tuned in for Michigan’s 34-13 victory over Washington in 2024.
It was the third-lowest audience of the 11 CFP title games, with all three occurring in the past five years. The audience peaked at 26.1 million viewers during the second quarter when the game was tied at 7-7.
Portnoy claimed in the build up to the game that interest was low, owing to a range of factors including the caliber of the two teams and the clash with Donald Trump‘s inauguration.
He doubled down on that belief in a post on X replying to the announcement of the viewing figures.
The Barstool Sports chief posted: ‘Yikes. Like I said nobody cared.
‘Too far into nfl playoffs, 4th place conference team, inauguration. If a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears it does it make any noise.’
The game also followed what was a breathless weekend of NFL playoff action with the Buffalo Bills’ win over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday night capping off a thrilling two days.
Taylor Swift watched as the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Houston Texans on Saturday, the Washington Commanders upset the Detroit Lions and the Philadelphia Eagles won a war of attrition against the Los Angeles Rams in snow.
Since Alabama’s 26-23 overtime victory over Georgia in 2018, the last seven title games have had an average margin of victory of 25.4 points.
Ohio State had a 31-7 lead midway through the third quarter before Notre Dame rallied to get within one possession with five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
Georgia’s 65-7 rout of TCU in 2023 was the least-viewed title game (17.2m) followed by Alabama’s 52-24 win over Ohio State in 2021 (18.7m).
The first title game in 2015 – the Buckeyes’ 42-20 victory over Oregon – remains the most-watched college football game by viewers in the CFP era according to Nielsen at 33.9m.
This was the first year of the 12-team field. The first round averaged 10.6m viewers with the quarterfinals at 16.9m. The semifinals averaged 19.2m, a 17 per cent decline from last year.
Both semifinal games in 2024 though were played on January 1. Michigan‘s overtime victory over Alabama in the Rose Bowl drew a bigger audience (27.7m) than the Wolverines’ win in the title game.
CFP games ended up being nine of the 10 most-viewed this season. Georgia’s overtime win over Texas in the SEC championship on ABC/ESPN was sixth at 16.6m.
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