From The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF)comes this information, facts and statistics on the highly-successful 2009 college football season.To see the complete release: Another banner year of TV ratings & attendance highlight America's passion for college football (from
www.footballfoundation.org)
EXCERPTS FROM THE ARTICLE:[See the online release for more
Bowl Game Highlights along with
Notable Bowl Facts and Milestones and
2009-10 Chronological Bowl Results: Attendance & Household Impressions/Ratings]
The National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame (NFF) showcased several impressive facts from the 2009 college football season, including top-notch television ratings and stellar bowl attendance figures, that emphasize a continuing trend of increased interest in the sport by millions of fans across the country.
Highlights include ESPN notching its most-viewed regular season since 1994 and its most viewed bowl season ever while CBS Sports averaged its highest ratings since the sport returned to the network in 1996. VERSUS, concluding its fourth year of college football coverage, produced the highest-rated and most-watched season in its network’s history with a slate of 24 games. Despite a difficult economy, a near-record of 48.3 million fans, down just 1 percent from 2008, attended games at the 630 NCAA schools during the 2009 season, including postseason.
“College football fans love their sport with an unmatched passion, and it’s exciting to watch the numbers roll in each year, proving the strength of college football,” said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. “We are grateful to the bowl games and the broadcast industry for their creativity and commitment in delivering a first-class product that allow fans to experience the game with unequaled quality.”
The game has benefited enormously from the commitment of every major media sports outlet, including ESPN on ABC, CBS Sports, Fox Sports, NBC Sports, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN Classic, ESPN360.com, the Big Ten Network, CBS College Sports Network, Versus, Fox Sports Net, the Mtn.-Mountain West Sports Network, and NFL Network. Throughout the regular and bowl seasons these outlets continue to capitalize on college football’s ever increasing popularity to produce an increasing dynamic product that engages fans on new levels.
“We continue to experience tremendous fan interest in our studio and game coverage,” said Burke Magnus, ESPN senior vice president for college sports programming. “Nearly 200 million people tuned in to regular-season games across our platforms and more than 30 million viewers watched our first BCS Championship game in four years. We are excited about the future growth opportunities for the sport and look forward to televising an extensive schedule next year, concluding with the entire BCS.”
The 2009-10 bowl viewership and attendance remained robust, attracting 1,769,886 fans to 34 bowl games and filling stadiums to 85 percent of their capacity at an average of 52,055 individuals per game. Combined viewership for all games also increased from 203,629,913 viewers (143,538,047 households) last season to 225,399,846 (155,331,079 households) in 2009-10, or about an 11 percent jump.
With the 1.77 million in attendance at bowl games and more than 225 million viewers tuning in to watch the games on television, bowl payouts ran an estimated $240 million in 2009-10 and have totaled $2.08 billion over the last 11 seasons. Over the next 10 years, bowls are projected to pay $2.5 billion to the teams and conferences in the Football Bowl Subdivision who participate.
An estimated $1.5 billion was netted from travel and tourism during the 34 clashes. Coaches and student-athletes took time out from their practice schedules to participate in a many community service such as children and veteran hospital visits, youth football clinics, Boys & Girls Clubs activities, Make-A-Wish events, Wish-Upon-A-Star Foundation, food distribution center visits, clothing drives, food drives, parades, and pep rallies.
Regular Season Ratings and Attendance Highlights* CBS Sports averaged its highest ratings since the sport returned to the network in 1996 with the SEC on CBS. The 4.4 rating represented a 29 percent increase over last year, and the network also landed the highest rated SEC Championship ever with the battle between No. 1 Florida and No. 2 Alabama earning an 11.1 rating or an 18 percent increase above the previous year’s game between the same two teams.
* ESPN averaged 2.1 million households, 2.87 million viewers and a 2.2 rating per game this season, making it the most-viewed season for the outlet since 1994 and the highest-rated since 1999. The numbers represented increases of 11%, 12% and 10%, respectively, over last year. The USC at Ohio State game became the outlet’s most-viewed game ever, including both bowls and regular season games, attracting 10.6 million viewers and a 7.3 rating while the Oregon State at Oregon game became the most-viewed Thursday night game ever for the outlet with 6.7 million viewers and a 4.3 rating.
* ESPN2 experienced its most-viewed season ever, averaging 1.1 million households and 1.5 million viewers, representing increases of 8% and 11% respectively. The average ESPN2 rating remained at 1.1 for both seasons. The Pittsburgh at West Virginia game became the outlet’s most-viewed game ever with 4.1 million viewers and a 2.9 rating.
* ESPN’s College GameDay Built by the Home Depot, the 2006 winner of the NFF Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award, continued its meteoric rise in popularity with its most-viewed season ever, averaging 1.7 million households and 2 million viewers with a 1.7 rating for increases of 14 percent, 12 percent, and 13 percent, respectively, over last year.
* ESPN’s Heisman Trophy presentation marked its highest-rated and most-viewed show ever, posting a 4.1 rating, 4,045,000 households and 5,990,000 viewers, for 32% increases over last year while The Home Depot ESPNU College Football Awards show averaged a 1.2 rating, 1,166,000 households and 1,593,000 viewers for a 33 percent ratings increase and a 48 percent increase in viewers, which made it the network’s most-viewed college football awards show since 1996.
* Both ESPN’s College Football Final and College Football Live studio programs experienced viewership growth between 12-17 percent, attracting an average of 1.5 million and 478,000 viewers respectively.
* NBC garnered a 16 percent increase in its average viewership for its Notre Dame coverage, pulling in 3.7 million viewers up from 3.2 million per game in 2008.
* The Big Ten Network’s ratings increased across the board in 2009, with its average afternoon telecasts improving by 28 percent over 2008 and its eight primetime games exploding by a staggering 183 percent. The channel’s telecasts of afternoon games averaged a 2.3 household rating with the primetime games pulling a 1.7 rating.
* The Mtn. – MountainWest Sports Network saw an 18 percent increase in its average household viewership from 2008 for the slate of 30 games that it carried in 2009 and 2008.
* Almost 48.3 million fans attended games at the 630 NCAA schools during the 2009 season, including postseason games.
* Average attendance at Football Bowl Subdivision games was 46,281.
* Michigan led the nation with an average crowd of 108,933.
* Penn State, Ohio State and Texas all averaged better than 100,000 a game.
* The Southeastern Conference led all leagues in attendance, at 76,288 a game.
Bowl Ratings Highlights * The combined five BCS games increased their viewership from 87,126,256 (58,559,478 households) to 95,031,974 (61,909,441 households) or about a 9 percent jump, and the attendance record of 94,906 at the BCS Championship between Alabama and Texas broke the all-time BCS record, previously set at 94,392 during the 2001 Rose Bowl when Washington defeated, 34-24, Purdue.
* ESPN averaged 3,110,000 households; 4,311,000 viewers; and a 3.1 rating for its 22 bowl games, making it the most-viewed season on the network for bowl coverage ever. The coverage included two of the network’s three largest bowl game audiences ever (Valero Alamo Bowl and the Emerald Bowl) and seven of the network’s top 25 of all time.
* ESPN2 averaged 1,832,000 households; 2,504,000 viewers; and a 1.9 rating, making it the network’s most-viewed and highest-rated bowl season.
* The Citi BCS National Championship gave ABC its biggest Thursday night audience since October 26, 1995 and the biggest audience for any television network between the event and the Academy Awards on February 22, 2009. Attracting 19.7 million households and 30.8 million viewers with a 17.2 rating, the game ranks second among most-viewed BCS games ever behind the ESPN on ABC telecast of the 2006 USC-Texas championship game in the Rose Bowl.
* The Rose Bowl Game presented by Citi garnered the second largest bowl audience this season for ESPN on ABC, behind only the BCS National Championship, with 15,143,000 households; 24,025,000 viewers; and a 13.2 rating.
* FOX's coverage of the Cotton, Sugar, Fiesta, Orange games averaged an estimated 11.9 million viewers each or about a 3 percent increase in viewership for the same four games from last year.
* The 2009 AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl (Georgia 44, Texas A&M 20) gave ESPN2 its highest-rated and most-viewed bowl game ever, averaging 2,334,000 households; 3,276,000 viewers; and a 2.4 rating.
* ESPN’s telecast of the Valero Alamo Bowl was the outlet’s most-viewed bowl game and fifth-highest-rated ever, with 5,554,000 households; 7,829,000 viewers; and a 5.6 rating.
* The Emerald Bowl delivered ESPN's third-most-viewed bowl game and 10th-highest-rated ever, averaging 5,289,000 households; 7,563,000 viewers; and a 5.3 rating.
* The New Year’s Eve telecast of the Chick-fil-A Bowl was ESPN’s seventh-most-viewed bowl game ever, with 4,852,000 households and 7,513,000 viewers, based on a 4.9 rating.
* The Valero Alamo Bowl with Texas Tech winning 41-31 against Michigan State, claimed the highest rated bowl game ever on ESPN/ESPN2 in both the San Antonio and Dallas markets with 12.5 and 9.3 ratings, respectively.
* Bowl’s boasting double digit growth in viewership included: the St. Petersburg Bowl Presented by Beef ‘O’ Brady’s (49%), Little Caesars Bowl (11%), Emerald Bowl (16%), AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl (171%), Brut Sun Bowl (44%), Texas Bowl (1769%), Chick fil-A Bowl (33%), Outback Bowl (39%), Rose Bowl presented by Citi (17%), Allstate Sugar Bowl (16%), AT&T Cotton Bowl (13%), AutoZone Liberty Bowl (79%), Valero Alamo Bowl (29%), FedEx Orange Bowl (17%), GMAC Bowl (24%), and the Citi BCS National Championship Game (15%).