(05-16-2017 03:18 PM)stever20 Wrote:  you see- I don't think any way in hell that Penn St/Pittsburgh would get 4.5 million viewers. Not going up against Ohio St/Oklahoma AND Georgia/Notre Dame.

AND- a lot of the Ohio St/Michigan average was last year. You take out last year when it was a playoff game- the other 3 years and that's more like 9.5 million. That's much more realistic.

Also- no way in hell Army/Ohio St would draw 5 million viewers(neither would Air Force/Michigan get 4.5 million).

Just the Penn St/Pittsburgh and Ohio St/Michigan changes would cut a lot into the 5 million difference.

I'm just looking at the numbers over the last 4 seasons.

Ohio St.-Oklahoma had 5.8M last year. So, the 8.5M is generous - again, especially going against Georgia-Notre Dame and Nebraska-Oregon or USC-Stanford.

Throw out the 2015 OSU-MSU matchup of 11M viewers, and the average is closer to 6M. So, the 8M viewers (based on the average) is generous.

Those two adjustments make the analysis swing back the other direction and then some.

Regarding Army-OSU: OSU-Indiana has seen 7.2M and 4M viewers. OSU-Rutgers has seen 5.3M. OSU-Northwestern and OSU-Illinois have been in the 4-7M range. OSU-Minnesota averages 5.2M. I think 5M for Army-OSU is absolutely realistic.

Penn St.-Akron got over 3M viewers in '14. Although I do think 4.5M for Pitt-PSU is possible, especially for a top-5 team in an early-season rivalry game, you are probably right. In looking at the schedule, it likely competes with either Oklahoma-OSU and Georgia-ND or Auburn-Clemson and TCU-Arkansas. Pitt-PSU would have a shot if it's the 12pm ET game going up against Louisville-UNC or....ECU-WVU? Cincy-Michigan?