Saw this posted on another board. C-USA has some work to do. We have to draw more viewers. Averaging 825,000 viewers a game isn't enough. Does anyone know how these numbers compare with last seasons ratings?

From the article:

Top 50 College Football Teams: TV Ratings

There are 12 SEC teams in the Top 25, including 7 teams in the Top 10. Unsurprisingly, Alabama is king of the mountain. SEC newbies Texas A&M and Missouri are ranked 3rd and 21st respectively. Their rival Big 12 schools Texas (29) and Kansas (74) did not crack the Top 25. Big 12 replacements TCU and West Virginia ranked 49th and 51st.

Note that ratings from certain networks are unavailable (e.g., Big Ten Network, Pac-12 Network, ESPNEWS, Longhorn Network), and this boosts averages for teams playing on those networks since ratings are generally low (see Longhorn Network). Teams like Northwestern benefit from having a low number of rated games since only their most attractive matchups with opponents like Ohio State are picked up by top TV stations.



Rank Conference Avg Viewersa Avg Ratingb # of Rated Gms
1 SEC 3,596,643 2.2 114
2 Big 10 2,643,794 1.7 80
3 ACC 1,918,042 1.2 84
4 Pac-12 1,799,596 1.1 74
5 Big 12 1,571,833 1.0 90
6 AAC 1,040,547 0.7 50
7 MWC 1,017,701 0.7 45
8 C-USA 825,796 0.5 40
9 MAC 765,792 0.5 32
10 Sun Belt 603,694 0.4 18

Here is the link:

http://www.goodbullhunting.com/2013/12/4...m-missouri

(12-05-2013 11:00 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  Saw this posted on another board. C-USA has some work to do. We have to draw more viewers. Averaging 825,000 viewers a game isn't enough. Does anyone know how these numbers compare with last seasons ratings?

From the article:

Top 50 College Football Teams: TV Ratings

There are 12 SEC teams in the Top 25, including 7 teams in the Top 10. Unsurprisingly, Alabama is king of the mountain. SEC newbies Texas A&M and Missouri are ranked 3rd and 21st respectively. Their rival Big 12 schools Texas (29) and Kansas (74) did not crack the Top 25. Big 12 replacements TCU and West Virginia ranked 49th and 51st.

Note that ratings from certain networks are unavailable (e.g., Big Ten Network, Pac-12 Network, ESPNEWS, Longhorn Network), and this boosts averages for teams playing on those networks since ratings are generally low (see Longhorn Network). Teams like Northwestern benefit from having a low number of rated games since only their most attractive matchups with opponents like Ohio State are picked up by top TV stations.



Rank Conference Avg Viewersa Avg Ratingb # of Rated Gms
1 SEC 3,596,643 2.2 114
2 Big 10 2,643,794 1.7 80
3 ACC 1,918,042 1.2 84
4 Pac-12 1,799,596 1.1 74
5 Big 12 1,571,833 1.0 90
6 AAC 1,040,547 0.7 50
7 MWC 1,017,701 0.7 45
8 C-USA 825,796 0.5 40
9 MAC 765,792 0.5 32
10 Sun Belt 603,694 0.4 18

Here is the link:

http://www.goodbullhunting.com/2013/12/4...m-missouri

Actually it is better than I would have guessed, especially considering the fact that many of the CUSA games end up on some obscure regional channel.

(12-05-2013 11:00 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  Saw this posted on another board. C-USA has some work to do. We have to draw more viewers. Averaging 825,000 viewers a game isn't enough. Does anyone know how these numbers compare with last seasons ratings?

From the article:

Top 50 College Football Teams: TV Ratings

There are 12 SEC teams in the Top 25, including 7 teams in the Top 10. Unsurprisingly, Alabama is king of the mountain. SEC newbies Texas A&M and Missouri are ranked 3rd and 21st respectively. Their rival Big 12 schools Texas (29) and Kansas (74) did not crack the Top 25. Big 12 replacements TCU and West Virginia ranked 49th and 51st.

Note that ratings from certain networks are unavailable (e.g., Big Ten Network, Pac-12 Network, ESPNEWS, Longhorn Network), and this boosts averages for teams playing on those networks since ratings are generally low (see Longhorn Network). Teams like Northwestern benefit from having a low number of rated games since only their most attractive matchups with opponents like Ohio State are picked up by top TV stations.



Rank Conference Avg Viewersa Avg Ratingb # of Rated Gms
1 SEC 3,596,643 2.2 114
2 Big 10 2,643,794 1.7 80
3 ACC 1,918,042 1.2 84
4 Pac-12 1,799,596 1.1 74
5 Big 12 1,571,833 1.0 90
6 AAC 1,040,547 0.7 50
7 MWC 1,017,701 0.7 45
8 C-USA 825,796 0.5 40
9 MAC 765,792 0.5 32
10 Sun Belt 603,694 0.4 18

Here is the link:

http://www.goodbullhunting.com/2013/12/4...m-missouri

You have to remember that FS1 was launched just this past August. I would expect those numbers to climb some as FS1 continues to catch up with ESPN and they get a full season under their belt

where are all the extra heads going to come from? Too many options on tv every week.

Any system that has Texas rated 29th in television viewership seems as questionable as C-USA's rating systems....

Seriously, Texas 29th? I'm sure ESPN likes making $.3 billion dollar investments in a television network with a viewership about 30th in numbers.

Well we are just behind the AAC and MWC and as pointed out, that is with FS1 just starting up this year.

The good news is we are ahead of the SBC and MAC even though the MAC plays all of those weekday games. We play on Saturdays and are still having some pretty good numbers. This is a good base to build off of.... I'll take it.

(12-05-2013 11:30 PM)CoachMaclid Wrote:  Any system that has Texas rated 29th in television viewership seems as questionable as C-USA's rating systems....

Seriously, Texas 29th? I'm sure ESPN likes making $.3 billion dollar investments in a television network with a viewership about 30th in numbers.

The main problem is there are not a lot of people who actually get the Longhorn network.

Aside from FS1 just starting I think the key point here is the fact that we don't play on ESPN hardly at all.

I'm actually encouraged by these numbers considering those two factors.

And as Fanatic said in addressing Texas, there are a lot of carriers in Texas itself that still don't carry the Longhorn network. It's safe to say the first year or so of the network has been a failure, because of ESPN's inability to get cable companies to pick it and pay the fees for it. ESPN is taking a bath on it right now losing millions.

(12-06-2013 08:48 AM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  Aside from FS1 just starting I think the key point here is the fact that we don't play on ESPN hardly at all.

I'm actually encouraged by these numbers considering those two factors.

And as Fanatic said in addressing Texas, there are a lot of carriers in Texas itself that still don't carry the Longhorn network. It's safe to say the first year or so of the network has been a failure, because of ESPN's inability to get cable companies to pick it and pay the fees for it. ESPN is taking a bath on it right now losing millions.

Good points. I'm encouraged with those numbers as well considering that FS1 is getting its feet wet.

I'd really like to see us average 1,000,000 viewers next season. We have to win our bowl games and be smarter about when and on what networks we schedule our games next season. Too many times this season, I'd check our regional FOX station, and they had a couple of east coast C-USA programs playing each other, instead of having a western division matchup, that would appeal to more viewers in the southwest. Or... FOX Sports 1 would have a matchup of a decent team playing one that was below .500, when the regional FOX was airing a couple of teams in the hunt for the championship. That kind of scheduling can't be helping our numbers.

We shouldn't have a set schedule for FOX 1. Every week we should find the best C-USA matchups and feature them on FOX 1. I'd also like to see us play most of our other games on the FOX regional networks, or CBS Sports. I don't care much for FOX College Sports, and we should never play on the Longhorn Network, That make our conference look Bush League.

I don't think 800,000 is all that bad, all things considered.

Agree with Joe that 1,000,000 would be a good goal, and should be attainable over the next few seasons. Even though it's not a whole lot of people, they are mostly young males and watching live rather than on DVR skipping commercials, so the ad execs will be pleased.

FYI, I looked into this a little deeper and I'm going to grow a little more skeptical now.

For starters, this claims to include 40 C-USA games in total.

Second, the data they pulled from only includes the nationals (ESPN 1, 2 and U; FS1 and 2, CBS, ABC, etc) and does not include games on the regional networks. However, I can't get to 40 C-USA games just using the nationals, so I wonder if the they used some defectors as part of C-USA? Or did they include regionals in some cases and not in others. Just not sure of the accuracy.

Also, because games against BCS schools are included and not just conference games some of our numbers are inflated because of those games.

IMO, this would be more valuable if it included regional networks and you could see each individual rating as you can with the nationally televised games.

Without a lot more investigation (which I don't really have time for) this doesn't provide a good apples to apples comparison in trying to compare our ratings to other G5 ratings. What I mean by that is if, for example, you play Alabama that's going to give your league a signficant bump over playing Indiana. There just isn't an equitable way to make a comparision unless perhaps you just look at conference games only.

(12-06-2013 09:45 AM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  FYI, I looked into this a little deeper and I'm going to grow a little more skeptical now.

For starters, this claims to include 40 C-USA games in total.

Second, the data they pulled from only includes the nationals (ESPN 1, 2 and U; FS1 and 2, CBS, ABC, etc) and does not include games on the regional networks. However, I can't get to 40 C-USA games just using the nationals, so I wonder if the they used some defectors as part of C-USA? Or did they include regionals in some cases and not in others. Just not sure of the accuracy.

Also, because games against BCS schools are included and not just conference games some of our numbers are inflated because of those games.

IMO, this would be more valuable if it included regional networks and you could see each individual rating as you can with the nationally televised games.

Without a lot more investigation (which I don't really have time for) this doesn't provide a good apples to apples comparison in trying to compare our ratings to other G5 ratings. What I mean by that is if, for example, you play Alabama that's going to give your league a signficant bump over playing Indiana. There just isn't an equitable way to make a comparision unless perhaps you just look at conference games only.

I don't think it would be difficult to get to 40 games - 8 ECU games alone were on either FCS, FS1, or ESPN/ACC network.

But it's definitely not a good apples to apples comparison for the reasons you mention.

Chappy, these were the only ECU games counted...

FAU - FS1
Virginia Tech - FS1

FCS and ACC network were not counted as national. They are regional.

We had 11 of our 12 games televised but only BYU (ESPN) and Marshall (FS1) were included in these ratings.

BTW, even though CBSSN is national it was not included and we play a lot of games on that channel. Realistically though the problem with that channel is the only people turning to it are the people with a vested interest in the two opponents. Thought I like FS1 what I saw this year is that they are going to have no problem dumping us to the regional Fox networks to broadcast Big 12 and Pac 12 games.

At this point I'm not going to be overly concerned with ratings as long as they keep giving us money to play on their channels, because in most cases we're not going to be able to have enough exposure to develop any sort of national followings that will make a dent in ratings unless one of us becomes the next media darling (aka Boise).

Ok, this is all I got for you. I looked at only conference games and now realized that we only had one Saturday game that was on a recognized national network and that was Tulsa vs. UTEP. All others were on Thursday except FIU/FAU, which was on Friday. Below you will see the game, the viewership and then any competition for those Thursday games. Again, the others were not included in the national network counts. I only did C-USA games. On the surface, it looks like we would only be ahead of the SBC if we looked at conference games only, but that's on casual observation. If you want to go do the others for a comparison knock yourself out. I didn't really have time to do this.

FAU/ECU - 181K - Thurs. (No competition)
Tulane/La Tech - 124K - Thurs. (Big 12 and SBC = 3.65M)
Tulsa/UTEP - 148K - Sat
Marshall/MT - 91K - Thurs. (SEC = 1.33M)
Rice/UNT - 108K - Thurs. (AAC and SBC = 969K)
Marshall/Tulsa - 155K - Thurs. (ACC - 2.06M)
Rice/UAB - 79K - Thurs (AAC - 972K)
FIU/FAU - N/A - Fri

I did not do the non-conf games, but I definitely did not see 40. Perhaps they counted CBSN games but didn't include them on the site?? Just not sure how they came up with the numbers. However, as you can see there our average was 126,571 viewers for conference games on national networks. So, we don't have the full picture because a lot more conference games were televised than this and it's really not clear how they came up with the numbers. At this point I cannot draw any further conclusions.

(12-06-2013 10:44 AM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  BTW, even though CBSSN is national it was not included and we play a lot of games on that channel. Realistically though the problem with that channel is the only people turning to it are the people with a vested interest in the two opponents. Thought I like FS1 what I saw this year is that they are going to have no problem dumping us to the regional Fox networks to broadcast Big 12 and Pac 12 games.

At this point I'm not going to be overly concerned with ratings as long as they keep giving us money to play on their channels, because in most cases we're not going to be able to have enough exposure to develop any sort of national followings that will make a dent in ratings unless one of us becomes the next media darling (aka Boise).

If we want better ratings we need a couple of teams to become media darlings and we may also have to bite the bullet and play a couple more week night games.

I'd bet that over time if Boise St starts to turn in seasons like the current one which is not special, with no other real media darling of their own, the MWC numbers will slip. Being on espn does help them but without a top notch Boise St, those appearances will scale back and you will see more and more of their games on Root, which almost no one sees.

(12-06-2013 11:05 AM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  Ok, this is all I got for you. I looked at only conference games and now realized that we only had one Saturday game that was on a recognized national network and that was Tulsa vs. UTEP. All others were on Thursday except FIU/FAU, which was on Friday. Below you will see the game, the viewership and then any competition for those Thursday games. Again, the others were not included in the national network counts. I only did C-USA games. On the surface, it looks like we would only be ahead of the SBC if we looked at conference games only, but that's on casual observation. If you want to go do the others for a comparison knock yourself out. I didn't really have time to do this.

FAU/ECU - 181K - Thurs. (No competition)
Tulane/La Tech - 124K - Thurs. (Big 12 and SBC = 3.65M)
Tulsa/UTEP - 148K - Sat
Marshall/MT - 91K - Thurs. (SEC = 1.33M)
Rice/UNT - 108K - Thurs. (AAC and SBC = 969K)
Marshall/Tulsa - 155K - Thurs. (ACC - 2.06M)
Rice/UAB - 79K - Thurs (AAC - 972K)
FIU/FAU - N/A - Fri

I did not do the non-conf games, but I definitely did not see 40. Perhaps they counted CBSN games but didn't include them on the site?? Just not sure how they came up with the numbers. However, as you can see there our average was 126,571 viewers for conference games on national networks. So, we don't have the full picture because a lot more conference games were televised than this and it's really not clear how they came up with the numbers. At this point I cannot draw any further conclusions.

This is exactly what I'm talking about when it comes to scheduling games. Tulsa (1-4) @ UTEP (1-4) was on FOX Sports 1. That was not the most attractive matchup on the weekend of Oct. 12th. We had ECU (4-1) @ Tulane (4-2) playing that day. That game was a nail biter and went to overtime. It was a great cross divisional matchup that should have been on FOX Sports 1.

If you look at Tuesday and Wednesday night games on ESPN with Sun Belt and MAC teams those games drew ratings that are three to four times larger than our most watched game of the year in conference.

Should this concern us? While playing on weeknights sucks this could hurt us longterm as other leagues are getting more exposure.

With FS1 seemingly unwilling to give us Saturday games, I'm not sure our best play is help Fox build the network. That could take a lot of time...time we don't necessarily have.

The MAC seems to have a very cushy TV deal with set days of the week for their TV games and many times 2 of their games being played on TV the same night (not sure how smart that part is, though).

Still, that kind of consistency in their weekly TV games has to help them more than the numbers seem to indicate.

GMG!

PS: Amazing (and sad) how Bowling Green's win over NIU the other night cost that conference around $8 million, though.

How much did USM's win over UH 3 years ago cost CUSA back then I wonder?