College Football HQ

Maybe it does mean more, as familiar city tops college football viewership

Nielsen Ratings confirm a familiar fan base atop the college football viewership stats for 2025.
Joe Cox|
Ty Simpson and Alabama likely featured heavily in the top college football viewership footprint in the nation.
Ty Simpson and Alabama likely featured heavily in the top college football viewership footprint in the nation. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

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The old SEC advertisement claimed that the conference just means more, as does its sports. While the on-field results don't always concur in that assessment, there are some factors in the SEC's favor in weighing dominance college football conferences. TV viewership is a big one.

Birmingham's dominance

The historical king of college football viewership in 2025 definitely presents a familiar face. The Birmingham, Alabama market topped college football viewership in 2025, and that's a pattern that's a familiar one. Back in 2012, ESPN noted that the Birmingham market had topped college football viewership for a decade running, and for 11 of the past 12 years. Likewise, in 2021, Birmingham was noted as ESPN's top overall viewership market for the 12th year in a row. Of course, college football has long been a massive staple of ESPN's programming.

Viewership trends

Two immediate trends jump out from the top viewership markets. First, the absence of local pro teams is a significant factor. None of the top six markets has an affiliated local NFL team, and in fact, many are devoid of most if not all pro sports franchises. Columbus has the NHL and Oklahoma City has the NBA, but that's about all the competition on that front.

The other trend, though, is that SEC footprint, which in a broad definition includes eight of the top ten cities in question (yes, Atlanta and Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville are both reaching a bit, but with Georgia and South Carolina included, it's plausible). The only two definitively non-SEC spots are Columbus and Dayton. Incidentally, it was Columbus that overtook Birmingham in 2001 in that ESPN research above-- and ran consistently second to the Birmingham market.

These figures dove-tail neatly with the analysis on college football's most watched teams. As might be expected, the most watched team in the 2025 regular season, by a gap of almost a million viewers per week over the No. 2 team, was Alabama. The SEC claimed the top three most watched teams and eight of the top ten. State rival Auburn came in eighth, ahead of all but one non-SEC team (Ohio State).

For the third straight season, the CFP title isn't coming home to the SEC, but it hasn't stopped Birmingham viewers from tuning in to watch. Given Birmingham's viewership dominance, it starts to look like nothing would outlast local college football viewership there. Maybe it does mean more.

Published
Joe Cox
JOE COX

Joe is a journalist and writer who covers college and professional sports. He has written or co-written over a dozen sports books, including several regional best sellers. His last book, A Fine Team Man, is about Jackie Robinson and the lives he changed. Joe has been a guest on MLB Network, the Paul Finebaum show and numerous other television and radio shows. He has been inside MLB dugouts, covered bowl games and conference tournaments with Saturday Down South and still loves telling the stories of sports past and present.

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