Massive spike in college football viewership across all major networks

The business of college football is booming so far in 2025, at least according to the TV ratings through the opening weeks of the season.

Front Office Sports reported that total college football viewership across all networks is up 21% compared to last season, citing data from Nielsen.

The most-watched game of the season so far was Ohio State's Week 1 14-7 win over Texas in what was a highly anticipated showdown of preseason top-3 teams. That game on FOX drew 16.62 million viewers, setting a record as the most-watched Week 1 college football game on record, per FOS.

The marquee Notre Dame-Miami clash, with the Hurricanes winning the clash of top-10 teams 27-24, drew an impressive audience of its own with 10.8 million viewers on ABC, with Alabama-Florida State (10.7 million viewers on ABC) and LSU-Clemson (10.4 million viewers on ABC) not far behind, per Nielsen data reported by On3. Meanwhile, Bill Belichick's North Carolina debut vs. TCU drew 6.6 million viewers on ESPN, and Virginia Tech-South Carolina brought in 5.4 million on ESPN.

The biggest game last weekend was another battle of ranked teams as Oklahoma beat Michigan, 24-13, with 9.7 million viewers tuning into ABC, per On3, while Ole Miss-Kentucky drew 4.8 million viewers on ABC, Iowa-Iowa State brought in 4.3 million viewers on FOX and 3.7 million tuned into ABC to see Texas blowout San Jose State just to get another look at QB Arch Manning.

There are three games between ranked opponents this Saturday that should command a lot of eyes as No. 6 Georgia plays at No. 15 Tennessee on ABC (3:30 p.m. ET), No. 16 Texas A&M travels to No. 8 Notre Dame (7:30 p.m ET on NBC) and No. 18 South Florida takes on No. 5 Miami (4:30 p.m. PT) on The CW Network.