Miami-USF isn’t just another college football game on Saturday afternoon. It’s the biggest test yet for The CW’s unlikely transformation into a legitimate sports destination.
The network is expecting its largest college football audience ever when No. 5 Miami faces No. 18 South Florida at 4:30 p.m. ET. To put that in perspective, The CW’s current college football record is 1.33 million viewers for North Alabama-Florida State in 2023. Yes, North Alabama versus Florida State is currently the high-water mark for a network that’s been around in various forms since 1995.
That number tells you everything about how far The CW has come and how far it still has to go. The network’s sports record overall is 1.8 million for a NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona, which means Miami-USF could realistically become the most-watched sports broadcast in The CW’s history if enough people care about two ranked teams playing in September.
The CW’s college football journey has been a collection of modest successes and strategic patience. After North Alabama-FSU, their second-biggest game was the Barstool Arizona Bowl between Toledo and Wyoming, which drew 1.1 million viewers. Then there’s a significant drop to Virginia-North Carolina at 788,000, followed by Washington State-Oregon State at 695,000.
What’s remarkable isn’t the size of these audiences, it’s that they exist at all. The CW has built a college football presence by picking up the games other networks don’t want, providing a home for mid-tier matchups that still matter to the teams and fanbases involved.
The network’s sports strategy has been working. Since beginning live sports in 2023, 40 million people have tuned in for The CW sports broadcasts, contributing to five consecutive quarters of year-over-year growth. Sports programming has become central to The CW’s path toward profitability by 2026.
Miami-USF represents the payoff for that patience. Both teams are ranked, both have legitimate playoff aspirations, and the game has actual national relevance beyond just being programming filler on a Saturday afternoon.
The San Francisco Demons vs. Los Angeles Xtreme XFL opener in 2001 on UPN could technically still be the most-watched football game in the network’s lineage, but that requires stretching the definition of what counts as The CW. For practical purposes, Saturday’s game will likely be the most-watched football broadcast in the network’s actual existence.
Depending on how liberal your definition of ‘The CW’ is, this is probably still the most-watched football game ever in the network’s history: https://t.co/67IxxGv5Pv pic.twitter.com/d2lCQh15Iv
— Sports TV News & Updates (@TVSportsUpdates) September 8, 2025
The CW’s college football coverage has provided plenty of moments that perfectly capture the network’s scrappy identity.
But Miami-USF is different. This is The CW’s chance to prove it belongs in conversations about college football’s media landscape. The network won’t be challenging ESPN or Fox for the biggest games anytime soon, but a strong number for Miami-USF validates the strategy of building an identity around games that still matter, even if they’re not played in primetime windows.
For The CW, breaking that 1.33 million viewer record would represent more than just a ratings milestone. It would confirm that the network’s bet on live sports as a path to relevance is paying off, one modest success at a time.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.