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Clemson blowout over Alabama has lowest TV ratings for a title game since 2012

Nick Bromberg
College football and motorsports writer

Maybe there are a few people out there who really are sick of Clemson playing Alabama in the College Football Playoff. Or people went to bed early knowing Clemson had the game in the bag.

The Tigers’ 44-16 win over Alabama on Monday night got a 14.6 television rating for ESPN’s multiple networks broadcasting the game. As noted by Austin Karp of the Sports Business Journal, it’s the lowest rating for a national title game since Alabama had a rematch with LSU in January of 2012 and over two points off the rating that Alabama’s last-second win over Georgia in 2018 got.

Of course, Alabama’s win over Georgia came in overtime on a miraculous touchdown pass. This game was a blowout. And ESPN would like you to know that it believes the ratings were down because people turned off the game in the fourth quarter. Here’s an excerpt straight from ESPN’s press release about the overnight ratings for the game.

Rating Followed Similar Pace of Last Alabama-Clemson CFP National Championship through Three Quarters

Through three quarters (8:15-11:15 p.m.), last night’s rating tracked similarly to Clemson and Alabama’s most recent CFP National Championship game in January 2017, despite Clemson extending its lead to 28 points in the third quarter. In the 2017 game, the Tigers trailed by 10 points entering the third quarter before coming back to win in the final seconds of the game. Last night, the Tigers achieved the largest margin of victory for any college football national championship game since 2005.

As you can imagine, the highest-rated television markets for the championship game were in the south. Birmingham was far and away tops among TV markets with a whopping 56.6 rating for the game. Greenville, South Carolina, was second at 36.9. No other city’s TV market had more than a 30 rating for the game.

The lower ratings for the title game follow lower ratings for the semifinals on Dec. 29. The semifinals in 2018 were played on a Saturday afternoon and evening. The semifinals after the 2017 season were the Rose and Sugar Bowl and both played in prime time (on the east coast) on Jan. 1.

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

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• Thamel: Trevor Lawrence’s ascendance complete with title showcase
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• Biggest plays in Clemson’s national championship win over Alabama