The numbers are out, and ESPN/ABC pulled in big numbers for a regular-season college football game, the Notre Dame-Florida State blockbuster from Saturday night.
The game received plenty of attention throughout the week. Moreover, as ABC’s prime-time centerpiece, the contest kicked off at 8:22 p.m. Eastern time following an extended pregame lead-in. All that advance suspense then gave way to a sprawling, enthralling thriller with even more drama and theater. The quality of Notre Dame-Florida State satisfied the fan who loves to see the sport played at the highest level. Yet, the constant closeness of Irish-Seminoles is what helped the game to rise in the ratings.
Here’s the number, placed in recent historical context for ESPN and ABC:
Huge 8.5 overnight rating for Notre Dame – Fla St on ABC. Best non-BCS rating for Cfb on an ESPN network since Nov 2012
— Josh Krulewitz (@jksports) October 19, 2014
What’s particularly amazing about the rating for this game is not the final national number, but the two highest-rated markets. Richard Deitsch listed the top 10 Notre Dame-Florida State markets in his new media column for Sports Illustrated. Birmingham topped the list, with Columbus coming in second. The prevalence of non-Florida, non-Indiana markets on the list — with out-of-state markets other than Chicago claiming the top two spots — certainly rates as an eye-catcher.
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In an attempt to digest and make sense of this rating, several tension points arise, and they could form the basis for all sorts of fun water-cooler discussions during the week. Among these tension points:
1) This being the highest-rated non-BCS game for ESPN/ABC since Notre Dame-USC 2012, did the reality of the first College Football Playoff drive the rating as high as it did? Notre Dame-USC 2012 was a late-November game in which the Irish were clearly set apart as a team close to the BCS finish line. End-of-season games focus the spotlight on top teams, especially if they’re brand names such as Notre Dame was on Thanksgiving weekend of 2012. This was only a mid-October game in Tallahassee, Fla., with plenty of twists and turns awaiting both the winner and loser. Did playoff intrigue build the rating to a greater extent? The ratings in SEC (Birmingham) and Big Ten (Columbus) locales could support such a line of argument.
2) Did this game’s rating soar because of Notre Dame or the Fighting Irish’s opponent? Yes, Notre Dame is the common thread in ESPN/ABC’s last two regular-season knockouts as far as ratings are concerned, but Florida State has very much been a media magnet this season. This leads to…
3) Were viewers tuning in because Notre Dame was the villain, or an unexpected hoped-for savior? Notre Dame has stood as a longtime hate-magnet television attraction, the kind of team that is loathed with a ferocity matching the manner in which it is loved by its supporters. Yet, in “The Year Of Ray Rice” and extreme sensitivity to the mere possibility of sexual assault, many Americans have become quite upset about what they perceive to be a wayward culture at Florida State, whether or not this is in fact the case.
There’s a fairly strong and pervasive — if not entrenched — national attitude toward Florida State, head coach Jimbo Fisher, and star quarterback Jameis Winston, one that holds the program in low regard. Many viewers were watching in the fervent hope that Notre Dame would be — in their eyes — an angel of sports karma, but did that viewing bloc constitute a majority of national television watchers? It’s not as though Notre Dame has undergone an image rehabilitation since the Declan Sullivan incident and other controversies involving academic integrity. Did Florida State really and truly supplant Notre Dame as The Team College Football Fans Most Love To Hate? The answer might be impossible to arrive at, but the question sure is an interesting one to kick around.
4) How much did the rest of the day in college football help feed the extremely high rating? After two particularly stirring Saturdays, especially in the 3:30 viewing window, this past Saturday’s 3:30 window fell flat with a string of blowouts in the high-visibility games. Alabama crushed Texas A&M on CBS. Ohio State throttled Rutgers on ESPN. Michigan State clobbered Indiana on ESPN2 and ABC. TCU demolished Oklahoma State on Fox Sports 1. Georgia annihilated Arkansas on SEC Network. Carnage ruled the afternoon on Oct. 18, busting up the constant flow of riveting action that had marked Oct. 11 and Oct. 4. Plenty of football fans (those who don’t watch the sport for a living) were able to take a break — maybe even a nap — before the night games. Fans had a chance to genuinely prepare for Irish-Noles.
Then, when the other night games began at 7 p.m. Eastern, the run of blowouts continued. Ole Miss took apart Tennessee after a slow start. Nebraska pulled away from Northwestern in the second half. Missouri’s win over Florida was near-certain at halftime and a done deal midway through the third quarter. LSU squeezed all intrigue from its game with Kentucky by halftime. (Poor Brent Musburger, unable to call Notre Dame-Florida State — he had the SEC Network call for Kentucky-LSU with Jesse Palmer.)
Notre Dame-Florida State, in many ways, stood on its own this past Saturday. Had it coexisted with the events of Oct. 11 or especially Oct. 4 (the day when 11 Associated Press Top 25 teams lost), Irish-Noles might not have pulled in this big a number.
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The aftermath of this game and its television performance brings up a fascinating dual reality: For all the debate which surrounds Notre Dame and Florida State as College Football Playoff contenders, these teams are also immersed in discussions about how attractive they are as TV properties, whether in a black hat or a white one.
