SI

SEC Dominates List of Most-Watched College Football Teams

ESPN’s SEC package is paying off in a major way when it comes to ratings.

Jimmy Traina

College football fans have tuned into Alabama games more than any other team this season.
College football fans have tuned into Alabama games more than any other team this season. / David Leong-Imagn Images

1. A few weeks ago, I opined in Traina Thoughts that I didn’t understand why Netflix would want exclusive rights to a USC-Notre Dame football game mainly because the Trojans barely have any national juice.

Not to toot my own horn, but Nielsen just released a list of the most-watched teams in college football for the 2025 season and USC doesn’t even crack the top 20.

It’s all about the SEC, with teams from that conference taking up the top six sports before Ohio State slips in at No. 7. Meanwhile, the Fighting Irish just managed to crack the top 10.

Here’s the top 20:

  1. Alabama
  2. Georgia
  3. Tennessee
  4. Texas
  5. Oklahoma
  6. LSU
  7. Ohio State
  8. Florida
  9. FSU
  10. Notre Dame
  11. Ole Miss
  12. South Carolina
  13. Michigan
  14. Vanderbilt
  15. Auburn
  16. Texas A&M
  17. Penn State
  18. Miami
  19. Clemson
  20. Missouri

A couple of observations. More fans tuning in to watch South Carolina than Michigan is shocking. Indiana, ranked No. 2 in the country, doesn’t crack the top 20. It’s also surprising that Oregon, always one of the most fun teams to watch in the sport, isn’t in the top 20.

The lesson here: You want your college football games on ABC and ESPN more than any other network.

2. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina dropped Thursday and it features an interview with Prime Video’s Al Michaels, a conversation with The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch and the weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment.

Michaels, who is currently working on a year-to-year basis with Prime, reveals that he would like to return next season to continue his broadcasting career. Michaels also discusses Prime’s strong schedule this season, the work ethic of his partner, Kirk Herbstreit, having the NFL instruct him to offer an on-air correction during a recent game, working in gambling references, working on Christmas Day, his television career and what his Thanksgiving plate will look like.

Following Michaels, Deitsch joins the podcast to talk about the latest sports media news. Topics discussed include how Amazon and NBC have done with their NBA coverage, the YouTubeTV-ESPN carriage dispute ending, Gus Johnson’s decline, Fox's approach to sports broadcasts, the NFL schedule, the future of podcasts and much more.

The podcast wraps up with the weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment featuring Sal Licata from WFAN and SNY in New York. This week's topics include my most recent a Curb Your Enthusiasm restaurant moment, Netflix’s new Eddie Murphy documentary, why it’s good that the Chiefs are .500, a viral Jason Alexander video and more.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

3. We’ve known for months that Major League Baseball had signed new broadcast deals with NBC, Netflix and ESPN. Those deals were officially announced on Wednesday and the details were exactly what has been reported for months.

NBC will air Sunday Night Baseball and all the wild-card games. ESPN will air 30 midweek games and now be the home of MLB.tv. Netflix will air Opening Day, the “Field of Dreams” game and the Home Run Derby.

While a lot has been made about these deals, what’s quietly flown under the radar is that the most important games aren’t moving. TBS and Fox will still air the League Championship Series and Fox will still air the World Series.

The biggest difference is that NBA and Peacock will carry the wild-card round instead of ESPN.

As for MLB.tv, we still don’t have an official price, which is what matters most concerning that aspect of the deal.

4. Here is this week’s edition of the best segment on sports television: Bad Beats.

5. Giants running back Cam Skattebo already gave people enough to talk about this week with his Monday Night Raw appearance, but there’s more. Here’s Skattebo drinking out of a cleat. Hopefully an unused cleat, although that’s still not much better.

6. I will always contend that M&Ms are one of the most overrated candies of all time, but I appreciate the Knicks’ Josh Hart giving us this piece of content.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Twenty years ago today, Curb Your Enthusiasm aired one of its funniest episodes: “The Ski Lift.”

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.

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JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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