Back in 2019, we wrote about how huge numbers for a Miami-Florida Week 0 game might see that week rise even more in emphasis. That looked absolutely set to happen the next year, especially with ESPN’s College GameDay set to do its first-ever overseas broadcast (for Navy-Notre Dame in Ireland). But the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic meant that game was cancelled (as were many more), and the idea of an added focus on Week 0 seemed to take a hit.
To be sure, the Week 0 games since then saw some traction. Those include two in Ireland, Northwestern-Nebraska in 2022 and Notre Dame-Navy last year. But while that first one was close, it was a battle of unranked teams (who went 1-11 and 4-8 respectively in the end that season), and last year’s game saw the No. 13 Irish stomp all over the unranked Midshipmen 42-3. And that was the case for many of the Week 0 games in those years.
So this year’s clash of Georgia Tech and No. 10 Florida State in Ireland had a lot more hype. That included attention from the Seminoles’ complaints about being left out of last year’s College Football Playoff, and from their off-field legal maneuverings to try and exit the ACC. And that led to GameDay making that transatlantic trip they’d planned for 2020. And that, and a thrilling game that saw the Seminoles pull off a 24-21 upset (and get a “pot of gold” call from Joe Tessitore) paid major ratings dividends for ESPN, including numbers not seen for Week 0 on any network since 2019. Network VP (brand strategy and content research) Flora Kelly discussed that on X/Twitter Tuesday:
The Aer Lingus Classic (GT/FSU) averaged 5.0M viewers, the most-watched Week 0 game since 2019, notably surpassing three major games on broadcast networks.
The audience was also up +40% from last year’s Navy/Notre Dame Week 0 game in Ireland. https://t.co/nC9gCvQ5gW
— Flora Kelly (@ESPNFlora) August 27, 2024
IMO no better indicator on the overall health of college football heading into week 1 than College Gameday (comps aren’t match-up specific)
Saturday’s College Gameday was BY far the most-watched Week 0 episode ever.
That and being a show that keeps topping itself #goat pic.twitter.com/IPVUaoatqz
— Flora Kelly (@ESPNFlora) August 27, 2024
As we wrote in 2019, regular Week 0 games (and especially games of any significance) were relatively rare to that point. But the case for them was building. There remain plenty of logistical challenges to playing in Week 0, but it looks increasingly worth networks’ time to try and get a decent matchup there. (For ESPN, too, part of the equation of a good Week 0 matchup beyond the game itself is sending GameDay there and boosting its numbers.) And one source of past school reluctance, the impact of a potential first-game loss on their playoff hopes, is much less of a big deal in the newly-expanded playoff format with guaranteed 1-4 seeds for Power 4 conference champions.
There are, of course, dangers to expanding Week 0 too much. Part of the audience for Georgia Tech-Florida State was about its lack of CFB competition. But there were only three other games on the day, none involving a ranked team. So, at the very least, there’s incentive to put on another strong early game, and there’s perhaps also incentive for ESPN and other networks to also and try to add more and better games later in the day on Week 0. We’ll see what it leads to, but ESPN can certainly be quite happy with their CFB ratings start.
[Flora Kelly on X/Twitter]
