The Big 12, with neither UT nor OU in the game, outscored the came in at #3 and was closer to #2 Big Ten than it was #4 Pac-12 (it was double the Pac-12).
The AAC outscored the ACC despite being up against the SEC championship.
The MAC outperformed the Mountain West (barely). ESPN matters a lot.
Conference USA didn’t make the list, because #10 was the meaningless USC/Cal game. ESPN matters a lot. Sidenote: It did draw an attendance of over 40k, which bodes well for UTSA and the AAC if they can be competitive there.
Wow… The ACC should be worried that the AAC can draw more viewers than their CCG WHILE competing with the SEC Championship game… Especially, if Venables bolts…
I totally agree. Florida State is a mess. Clemson I think will be back next year. But how long can they recruit at a national championship level selling the ACC? Why go to Clemson when you can go to an SEC school?
Clemson has been punching above its weight competitively, like Virginia Tech did before it. They’re a good program (better situated than VT) but a regression to the mean will be a problem for the ACC. It’s not impossible that some other school will step up, though.
We make fun of the PAC 12 because the region is slowly dying as it pertains to high school football. But the ACC has a few schools in the North East and mid Atlantic and those regions have basically given up playing high school football.
In the short term, the mid-Atlantic is going to be choked of talent by the fact so many high schools didn’t play football last year at all and some games got cancelled this year as well. High-quality players left the region for Florida. (Which is also ACC country, but they have more competition there.)
Clemson can get you to the playoffs and possibly a national championship with that weak ACC schedule. Not so much in the SEC unless you go to Bama or maybe Georgia.
ACC was hurt big time with Wake Forest. It’s a tiny school. Tiny schools don’t have a base to pull viewers in nor does anyone hate Wake enough to care enough to tune in.
And for folks saying the ACC is week, Clemson’s division is tougher than the SEC East.
ACC also went head-to-head with the B1G game, and there were plenty of Michigan folks waiting to see a win.
Disagree with Clemson’s division being tougher than the SEC East, but I’m not sure it’s a huge gap there.
What really impresses me is how much these ratings destroy NBA games. Makes sense, I guess, but it isn’t even close. Granted, 12-13 games vs 82, but still.
ACC also went head-to-head with the B1G game, and there were plenty of Michigan folks waiting to see a win.
That’s true, but the SEC game had a higher margin on the Big Ten game than the total number of people who watched the ACC game. (Almost as much as watched our game).