TaxSlayer Gator Bowl fourth among non-College Football Playoff games with 5 million viewers

Attendance at the 80th TaxSlayer Gator Bowl (31,290) may have been the second-lowest not counting the COVID year in 2020 in this century but having the Sugar Bowl between Notre Dame and Georgia as the lead-in game and no other games during its prime time slot ensured healthy TV viewing compared to other games with SEC and ACC tie-ins on its tier.

Around 5 million tuned into ESPN to watch Ole Miss defeat Duke 52-20 at EverBank Stadium on Jan. 2, a 47 percent increase over the 2023 game matching Clemson and Kentucky and the second-best viewership among the SEC’s “Pool of Six” games.

The Reliaquest Bowl between Michigan and Alabama drew 6.55 million viewers. The Gator topped the Texas Bowl (LSU-Baylor, 4.21 million), the Music City Bowl (Missouri-Iowa, 2.82 million) and the Las Vegas Bowl (Texas A&M-USC, 2.75 million).

On the three-bowl ACC tier, the Gator was second to the Pop Tarts Bowl (Iowa State-Miami, 6.8 million) and ahead of the Holiday Bowl (Syracuse-Washington State, 2.93 million).

The Gator Bowl was fourth among all non-College Football Playoff games in viewership, behind the Alamo Bowl (BYU-Colorado, with 8 million turning in to watch the final college game for Colorado stars Shedour Sanders and Travis Hunter), the Pop Tarts Bowl and Reliaquest Bowl.

That means the Gator Bowl also topped the Illinois-South Carolina Citrus Bowl (4.26 million) and the Virginia Tech-Minnesota Duke’s Mayo Bowl (3.38).

Over the first five years of the contract with the SEC, the Gator Bowl is second in average viewership (4.1 million) to the Reliaquest Bowl (4.27 million) among the Pool of Six bowls.

The final year of the contract to match and SEC vs. ACC team is 2025.

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