COLLEGE football fans are less interested in Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes this season.
Despite having a much improved season over last year, fans aren’t tuning into Colorado games at the same rate.
The Colorado Buffaloes are drawing less viewers this year than last year[/caption]
Colorado viewership is down nearly 50 percent[/caption]
Deion Sanders‘ inaugural season at Colorado brought hoards of viewers to their games, but that fad appears to have worn off.
Colorado’s win over Arizona averaged 2.02 million views on Fox, making it the least-watched game on Broadcast television in the Coach Prime era.
It is the second-least watched game across all networks, with only a Friday night game against Washington State last season averaging less.
Colorado games are averaging 3.84 million viewers this season, down almost 50 percent from the first eight weeks of last season.
In 2023, the Sanders family and the Buffaloes averaged 7.59 million viewers in the first eight weeks.
A Colorado game has not hit that figure yet this season, with their most-viewed game coming in Week 2 against Nebraska. Colorado lost in blowout fashion in a game that averaged 5.67 million viewers.
At this point last season, five of Colorado’s six Nielsen-rated games surpassed seven million viewers.
Fans of college football shared their theories on social media on why Colorado might be losing viewers.
“A lot people hate watching likely tuned out once they got up big,” one fan said.
“As the Buffs improve, haters who tune in hoping for a CU train wreck are having to back into the bushes,” another fan said.
“That’s because our fans are fed up lol,” a third fan said.
“Colorado’s viewership remains strong, by far the highest in the Big 12, but is on a declining trend,” a fourth fan said.
College football viewing interests were drawn to much larger matchups over the weekend, as they played at the same time as Alabama-Tennessee and Michigan-Illinois.
The Alabama-Tennessee game drew 10.23 million while Michigan-Illinois drew 3.01 million.
Colorado came in as the third-most viewed game in the mid-afternoon window.
College football top 25 rankings
BELOW are the top 25 rankings of college football’s best programs for Week 8
- Oregon (7-0)
- Georgia (6-1)
- Penn State (6-0)
- Ohio State (5-1)
- Texas (6-1)
- Miami (7-0)
- Tennessee (6-1)
- LSU (6-1)
- Clemson (6-1)
- Iowa State (7-0)
- BYU (7-0)
- Notre Dame (6-1)
- Indiana (7-0)
- Texas A&M (6-1)
- Alabama (5-2)
- Kansas State (6-1)
- Boise State (5-1)
- Ole Miss (5-2)
- Pittsburgh (6-0)
- Illinois (6-1)
- Missouri (6-1)
- SMU (6-1)
- Army (7-0)
- Navy (6-0)
- Vanderbilt (5-2)
The largest audience came in the night time window, with the high-powered matchup between Georgia and Texas drew a massive 13.19 million viewers.
That game became the most watched of the season, surpassing the Georgia-Alabama game in September that drew 11.99 million viewers.
While Georgia-Texas had the most average viewers, Alabama-Tennessee actually had a higher peak with 14.9 million compared to 14.4 million.
Sports networks can likely expect huge viewership this weekend, as there are some massive matchups to watch across the sport.
No. 12 Notre Dame is taking on No. 24 Navy, No. 15 Alabama plays No. 21 Missouri, and No. 8 LSU faces off against No. 14 Texas A&M.
Fans are claiming that the Sanders effect has worn off[/caption]
