Ravens-Steelers draws over 15 million viewers as NFL gains bigger audience over CFP games
The NFL and college football had games airing at the same time last Saturday, and the NFL won the ratings war.
Despite the 12-team College Football Playoff format making its debut, it did not get nearly the same viewership the NFL did.
SMU and Penn State aired at 12 p.m. ET and averaged 6.4 million viewers on the TNT networks.
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The clashing NFL game, a matchup between Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans, began at 1 p.m. ET and averaged 15.5 million viewers on NBC.
The NFL and college football clashed again later in the afternoon, as Clemson-Texas was on at 4 p.m. ET while the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens game began shortly after, at 4:30 p.m. ET.
The Steelers-Ravens matchup averaged 15.4 million viewers on FOX, while Clemson-Texas drew 8.6 million viewers on TNT.
When the NFL wasn’t competing with the College Football Playoffs, the ratings were way up for the other two games.
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Indiana-Notre Dame, the first game of the new 12-team format, aired on Friday night, and averaged 13.4 million viewers on ABC/ESPN.
The lone game on Saturday that wasn’t competing with the NFL did well, as Tennessee and Ohio State averaged 14.3 million viewers on ABC/ESPN.
The overall average of 10.6 million viewers for the first round of the College Football Playoffs was higher than all but four college games this season.
College football and the NFL will clash again on Saturday, as the NFL has three games throughout the day against a slate of bowl games.
The Los Angeles Chargers and New England Patriots play at 1 p.m. ET, the Denver Broncos and Cincinnati Bengals play at 4:30 p.m. ET, and the Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Rams play at 8:10 p.m. ET.
One of the notable bowl games on Saturday is No. 18 ranked Iowa State playing No. 13 ranked Miami in the Pop-Tarts Bowl at 3:30 p.m. ET.
Another big game is No. 23 ranked Colorado playing No. 17 ranked BYU in the Alamo Bowl at 7:30 p.m. ET, where top draft prospects Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter are expected to play.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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