USC vs. Colorado rating paled in comparison to Oregon Ducks’ game vs. Buffs
A week ago, Dan Lanning and the Oregon Ducks were thanking the Colorado Buffaloes and acknowledging that, because of the increased exposure that head coach Deion Sanders brings to the game of college football, they were to benefit.
We thought Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans would be thanking Coach Prime this week for that same ratings bump that came with playing the Buffs, but it didn’t quite play out that way.
It was announced on Tuesday that the game between the Trojans and Buffaloes — a 48-41 win for USC — drew just 7.24 million viewers on Fox, making it the most-watched game of the Week 5 slate. However, it failed to surpass the ratings high for the 2023 season (10.03 million) set a week ago for the game between Oregon and Colorado.
Colorado-USC tops Week 5 college football ratings via @paulsen_smw https://t.co/nfht9BoYma pic.twitter.com/RtVM3pC7SW
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) October 3, 2023
This marks the third week in a row the Buffs were part of the highest-rated game of the week. Their double-overtime thriller against Colorado State in Week 4 setting the season high (9.3 million) for ESPN’s late-night window. It is also the fourth time in five weeks Colorado has had the most-watched game of the week.
However, this game between CU and USC was the lowest-watched Buffaloes’ game of the year, which comes as a major surprise, since it was against arguably the most popular national opponent in the Trojans.
Despite that, the impact that Coach Prime is having on college football is tangible, and it’s great for the sport. We should all be thanking him for that.
