Which college football programs were the most-watched in 2021?
The wheels of conference realignment have stopped churning for now, at least at the highest levels of college football.
One of the driving forces beyond the moves we’ve seen are football TV viewership. Over the summer, I took a look at which college football programs brought in the most viewers from 2015–19. Now we have another entire regular season of data to look at.
Below, I’ve listed each school’s average game viewership for the regular season. And below that, I’ve listed every game that garnered at least 4 million viewers — a benchmark number in the eyes of TV networks.
As you peruse these lists, remember that TV viewership can be influenced by a whole bunch of factors, including game time, channel, competitiveness, and what other games are going on at the same time. Outliers can also sway averages, especially in a small sample size like this one.
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Ranking the most-watched college football programs in 2021
The numbers next to each school indicate the average number of viewers per week for a 12-week season.
Streaming numbers are included when available. Games that do not have available data are counted as zero.
- Ohio State — 5.22M
- Michigan — 4.74M
- Alabama — 4.64M
- Penn State — 3.87M
- Georgia — 3.61M
- Oklahoma — 3.46M
- Auburn — 3.22M
- Michigan State — 2.89M
- Notre Dame — 2.84M
- Oregon — 2.57M
- Wisconsin — 2.41M
- Nebraska — 2.29M
- Texas — 2.26M
- Florida — 2.21M
- Arkansas — 2.03M
- LSU — 1.90M
- Texas A&M — 1.86M
- Mississippi — 1.81M
- Clemson — 1.74M
- Iowa — 1.64M
- Purdue — 1.63M
- Oklahoma State — 1.58M
- Tennessee — 1.51M
- Minnesota — 1.28M
- Florida State — 1.27M
- Indiana — 1.24M
- Iowa State — 1.219M
- Cincinnati — 1.216M
- UCLA — 1.18M
- Baylor — 1.16M
- Illinois — 1.13M
- Southern Cal — 1.11M
- Kentucky — 1.08M
- Navy — 1.039M
- Miami — 1.038M
- North Carolina — 1.032M
- Utah — 994K
- Washington — 985K
- Maryland — 971K
- West Virginia — 948K
- TCU — 907K
- BYU — 893K
- Mississippi State — 858K
- Army — 804K
- Texas Tech — 798K
- Stanford — 778K
- Arizona State — 739K
- Northwestern — 716K
- Boise State — 657K
- Kansas State — 636K
- Louisville — 616K
- Virginia — 611K
- South Carolina — 575K
- Pittsburgh — 550K
- Kansas — 540K
- Wake Forest — 526K
- NC State — 525K
- Rutgers — 488K
- Washington State — 483K
- Missouri — 462K
- Georgia Tech — 459K
- Virginia Tech — 447K
- UCF — 407K
- Colorado — 366K
- Tulsa — 358K
- Tulane — 356K
- Arizona — 337K
- Louisiana — 334K
- Oregon State — 321K
- South Florida — 303K
- East Carolina — 301K
- Air Force — 255K
- Appalachian State — 241K
- Houston — 232K
- Coastal Carolina — 223K
- California — 222K
- Syracuse — 219K
- San Diego State — 198K
- Memphis — 193K
- Western Michigan — 171K
- SMU — 164K
- UAB — 163K
- Northern Illinois — 163K
- Boston College — 156K
- Hawaii — 139K
- Ohio — 130K
- Eastern Michigan — 122K
- Buffalo — 119K
- Kent State — 117K
- Temple — 112.7K
- Ball State — 112.6K
- Western Kentucky — 97K
- Utah State — 91K
- Akron — 90K
- Marshall — 85K
- Nevada — 78K
- Duke — 64K
- UTEP — 63K
- Colorado State — 59K
- San Jose State — 59K
- UTSA — 51.9K
- Georgia State — 51.7K
- ULM — 50K
- Fresno State — 45K
- Wyoming — 38K
- Vanderbilt — 37K
- UNLV — 34K
- South Alabama — 26K
- New Mexico — 25K
- Troy — 24K
The 2021 “4 million club”
Here are all of the games that broke 4 million viewers this season:
- Ohio State at Michigan — 15.89M
- Alabama at Auburn — 10.37M
- Michigan at Michigan State — 9.29M
- Georgia at Clemson — 8.87M
- Alabama at Texas A&M — 8.33M
- Alabama at Florida — 7.86M
- Notre Dame at Florida State — 7.75M
- Oregon at Ohio State — 7.73M
- Auburn at Penn State — 7.61M
- Army vs. Navy — 7.57M
- Penn State at Ohio State — 7.05M
- Penn State at Iowa — 6.90M
- Oklahoma at Oklahoma State — 6.49M
- Kentucky at Georgia — 6.37M
- Ohio State at Minnesota — 6.30M
- Georgia at Florida — 6.12M
- Michigan at Penn State — 5.942M
- Oklahoma at Texas — 5.940M
- Georgia at Tennessee — 5.78M
- Alabama at Miami — 5.67M
- Arkansas at Alabama — 5.46M
- Penn State at Wisconsin — 5.41M
- Notre Dame at Wisconsin — 5.37M
- Ohio State at Nebraska — 5.33M
- Michigan State at Ohio State — 5.29M
- Wisconsin at Minnesota — 5.05M
- LSU at Alabama — 5.00M
- Oregon at Utah — 4.82M
- Mississippi at Alabama — 4.79M
- Washington at Michigan — 4.75M
- Purdue at Ohio State — 4.74M
- Tennessee at Alabama — 4.68M
- Michigan at Nebraska — 4.63M
- Georgia at Auburn — 4.58M
- Texas A&M at Colorado — 4.50M
- West Virginia at Oklahoma —4.50M
- Michigan State at Purdue — 4.40M
- Michigan at Wisconsin — 4.31M
- Nebraska at Oklahoma — 4.21M
- Texas A&M at Arkansas — 4.07M
- Indiana at Penn State — 4.00M
There were 34 teams that played in at least one game that cracked 4 million viewers:
8— Alabama
7 — Ohio State
6 — Michigan, Penn State
5 — Georgia
4 — Oklahoma, Wisconsin
3 — Auburn, Michigan State, Nebraska, Texas A&M
2 — Arkansas, Florida, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Oregon, Purdue, Tennessee
1 — Army, Clemson, Colorado, Florida State, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, LSU, Miami, Mississippi, Navy, Oklahoma State, Texas, Utah, Washington, West Virginia
Looking for data from other years? Click the links below.
