Texas and Ohio State delivered the most-watched Week 2 college football game on record Saturday night, averaging nearly 14 million viewers on ABC as the Longhorns erased a 20-point fourth-quarter deficit to win 24–23 in Austin.
Viewership peaked at 16.4 million. The game was also the most-watched regular-season college football matchup on an ESPN platform in a decade.
Fox’s other marquee Big Ten–SEC game Saturday, Michigan’s 17–10 win over Oklahoma in Ann Arbor, averaged 8.2 million viewers. That was up more than 31% from Fox’s Big Noon Saturday average in 2025, but down from the 9.7 million ABC drew for last year’s Michigan–Oklahoma game in Norman.
The most-watched Week 1 game this season was Notre Dame’s 41–13 win over Wisconsin on NBC (8.1 million). LSU’s 51–10 win over Clemson averaged 5.8 million on ABC despite the preseason hype around Lane Kiffin’s debut; kickoff was delayed two hours by weather. Last year’s LSU–Clemson game was one of three Week 1 ABC broadcasts to clear 10 million viewers.