Interesting chart on SEC ccg ratings over the years at the end of this article:
http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2014/12/...iewership/

Ratings have taken off since the SEC started its championship run. The top 4 ratings and 7 of the top 8 from the last 14 years have been from 2008 forward.

"The SEC title game was once again a big draw for CBS, but hit a three-year low in both ratings and viewership.

seccbsnewLast Saturday’s Alabama/Missouri SEC Championship Game drew a 7.8 final rating and 12.8 million viewers on CBS, down 9% in ratings and 11% in viewership from Auburn/Missouri last year (8.6, 14.3M) and down 20% and 21%, respectively, from Alabama/Georgia in 2012 (9.8, 16.2M).

Alabama’s win ranks as the lowest rated and least-watched SEC Championship Game since 2011, the last time neither Alabama nor Auburn played in the game (7.3, 12.0M). With that said, it also ranks as the fifth-highest rated SEC title game ever on CBS (14 telecasts dating back to 2001).

After failing to reach a 6.0 rating each year from 2002-07, the SEC title game has at least hit that mark every year dating back to 2008.

For the season, Alabama/Missouri drew the second-highest rating on any network, trailing only Notre Dame/Florida State on ABC in October (7.9). Viewership was the third-largest of the season, trailing Notre Dame/FSU (13.3M) and the Auburn/Alabama Iron Bowl on ESPN (13.5M).

CBS averaged a 4.0 rating for SEC football this season, down 11% from last year (4.5) but up a tick from 2010 (3.9). Keep in mind CBS missed out on the highly rated Iron Bowl this year, which as noted above aired on ESPN. Despite the lower number, CBS’ SEC coverage was the highest rated college football package on any network."

(12-11-2014 04:46 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(12-11-2014 04:30 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(12-11-2014 04:21 PM)indycat Wrote:  For the B12--ouch. How about defectors Texas A&M and Mizzou in two of those top ten games? The B12 is beginning to resemble an old, cash rich life insurance company that has no idea how to do business in 2014 and beyond. It's actually a pretty good analogy because that insurance company can live off the fat of invested assets for years but may be clueless about how to find new revenue streams.

Missouri-Alabama in a pretty much exclusive time slot for the ccg got beat by Auburn-Alabama.

Virtually all of CBS's lowest rated SEC games involve Missouri or South Carolina. There was an article last year where CBS justified not covering a high profile Missouri game.

And all of the top 10 involved at least one of the last 5 MNC schools (there have only been Alabama, Auburn and FSU).

There was more than a little hopeful Winston schadenfreude in those numbers as well. F.S.U. draws well, but not that well usually.

As with Duke basketball games, you get larger audiences when you pull in a lot of people rooting against them in addition to people rooting for them. That is probably true here for both Bama and FSU.

(12-11-2014 04:21 PM)indycat Wrote:  For the B12--ouch. How about defectors Texas A&M and Mizzou in two of those top ten games? The B12 is beginning to resemble an old, cash rich life insurance company that has no idea how to do business in 2014 and beyond. It's actually a pretty good analogy because that insurance company can live off the fat of invested assets for years but may be clueless about how to find new revenue streams.

In retail, they would be the Sears.

(12-11-2014 06:20 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(12-11-2014 05:25 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(12-11-2014 05:20 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  The trend to me: ratings are driven by the playoff race even more so than the BCS era. In the BCS era, simply having two big brand names (i.e. some combo of Notre Dame, Michigan, Texas and/or USC) was enough to get a big ratings number even if they weren't championship contenders. Now, there's a bit less emphasis on those brand names in and of themselves if they're not highly ranked. Granted, it still helps immensely to have brand name power (which is the case with Alabama and Florida State). You also see the likes of Ohio State, Michigan State and Oregon peppered in the next 10 most watched games of the year (at least from what I see from the data at Sports Media Watch). The Big 12 was the one conference that wasn't boosted at all by the high rankings of their teams and it was almost certainly because Baylor, TCU and Kansas State were the ones involved.

The Big 12's means of delivery likely also played a part in their lack of numbers. FOX just isn't the draw that ESPN is, at least not yet.

Someone did a calculation of the ratings on the major networks. West Virginia lead the Big 12 according to his calculations (it was a Longhorn fan, not a Mountaineer).

One interesting thing- most every single big WVU game was on FS1 or Fox and not ABC/ESPN.

(12-11-2014 05:18 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(12-11-2014 05:10 PM)omniorange Wrote:  

(12-11-2014 04:46 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(12-11-2014 04:30 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(12-11-2014 04:21 PM)indycat Wrote:  For the B12--ouch. How about defectors Texas A&M and Mizzou in two of those top ten games? The B12 is beginning to resemble an old, cash rich life insurance company that has no idea how to do business in 2014 and beyond. It's actually a pretty good analogy because that insurance company can live off the fat of invested assets for years but may be clueless about how to find new revenue streams.

Missouri-Alabama in a pretty much exclusive time slot for the ccg got beat by Auburn-Alabama.

Virtually all of CBS's lowest rated SEC games involve Missouri or South Carolina. There was an article last year where CBS justified not covering a high profile Missouri game.

And all of the top 10 involved at least one of the last 5 MNC schools (there have only been Alabama, Auburn and FSU).

There was more than a little hopeful Winston schadenfreude in those numbers as well. F.S.U. draws well, but not that well usually.

FSU played ND during the regular season and had GT (coming off wins over Clemson and Georgia) in the championship game instead of Duke or a 6-6 GT.

However, in terms of TV ratings, they were also hurt by Florida not being good.

Still, the SEC was slightly down in comparison to say last year when the Top 10 most watched games were

Auburn/Mizzou (SEC Championship game)
Michigan State/Ohio State (BiG Championship game)
Alabama/Auburn
Alabama/Texas A&M
Alabama/LSU
Ohio State/Michigan
Notre Dame/Michigan
Miami/FSU
Georgia/Clemson
Texas A&M/LSU

SEC was hurt this year in comparison with last likely due to Ole Miss and Mississippi State being more regional than national attractions.

ACC's TV fortunes will continue to rest upon FSU, a good Miami, Clemson, and at least one of GT, VT, or Louisville being Top 25 caliber to support the above. And don't discount the partial affiliation with ND.

But I don't see any conference overcoming the strength and appeal of the SEC long term in regard to TV ratings. Every other conference is playing for second place in the long view.

Cheers,
Neil

On the flip side of the comparison Neil the ACC clearly supplanted the Big 10 across the board. My point was that pro FSU and anti Winston people tuned in to the F.S.U. games. I'm sure much more of the former than the latter but it would be interesting to see a differentiation of the numbers.

I'm sure there was something to Winston haters. But when FSU is at the top of the rankings that always draw as well as anybody in the country.

I think with FSU it was always like is this the game they finally get tripped up on? Especially the later games in the year. The FSU/Miami game to me a prime example.

(12-11-2014 04:46 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(12-11-2014 04:30 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(12-11-2014 04:21 PM)indycat Wrote:  For the B12--ouch. How about defectors Texas A&M and Mizzou in two of those top ten games? The B12 is beginning to resemble an old, cash rich life insurance company that has no idea how to do business in 2014 and beyond. It's actually a pretty good analogy because that insurance company can live off the fat of invested assets for years but may be clueless about how to find new revenue streams.

Missouri-Alabama in a pretty much exclusive time slot for the ccg got beat by Auburn-Alabama.

Virtually all of CBS's lowest rated SEC games involve Missouri or South Carolina. There was an article last year where CBS justified not covering a high profile Missouri game.

And all of the top 10 involved at least one of the last 5 MNC schools (there have only been Alabama, Auburn and FSU).

There was more than a little hopeful Winston schadenfreude in those numbers as well. F.S.U. draws well, but not that well usually.

Agreed, this is all Winston. Highly visible and talked about players can draw on their own. Same rang true with Johnny Football last year. I bet Michael Vick and Vince Young were both apart of top 10 games.