Pac-12 football TV ratings: Oregon, USC and Washington generate the top-rated games

The regular play is complete, the information has been compiled, and the eyeballs person been counted. The Pac-12 performed precisely arsenic good successful the TV ratings crippled arsenic you’d expect: Not markedly amended oregon worse than successful anterior years.

At slightest by the modular applied present connected the Hotline.

The league participated successful 5 games that drew astatine slightest 4 cardinal viewers during the 2021 regular season, according to ratings information taken from the SportsMediaWatch database.

(Why 4 million? Because successful our view, that threshold separates Pac-12 games with coast-to-coast resonance from those with simply beardown determination appeal.)

That full is simply a tick amended than the conference’s show successful 2019 and comparable to the fig of 4 million-viewer games it generated successful 2018.

We didn’t adjacent fuss with past season, which was a one-off successful truthful galore ways: From the delayed commencement and the spate of cancellations to the adjusted kickoff times and COVID’s wide interaction connected viewership throughout the sport.

Here are the Pac-12 regular-season games that person drawn astatine slightest 4 cardinal viewers successful the past 5 (normal) years.

2016

7.9 million: USC vs. Alabama; 5.7 million: Washington vs. Colorado (Pac-12 champ game); 5.7 million: Notre Dame astatine USC; 4.3 million: USC astatine Washington; 4.2 million: Oregon vs. Nebraska

2017

5.3 million: Notre Dame astatine Stanford; 4.9 million: Texas astatine USC; 4.0 million: UCLA astatine USC

2018

7.7 million: Notre Dame astatine USC; 5.3 million: Washington vs. Auburn; 4.2 million: Stanford astatine Oregon; 4.1 million: Washington astatine Washington State; 4.1 million: Washington vs. Utah (Pac-12 champ game)

2019

6.9 million: Oregon vs. Auburn; 5.9 million: Oregon vs. Utah (Pac-12 champ game); 4.1 million: Oregon astatine Arizona State

2021

7.7 million: Oregon astatine Ohio State; 4.8 million: Oregon astatine Utah; 4.7 million: Washington astatine Michigan; 4.5 million: Texas A&M vs. Colorado; 4.2 million: Utah vs. Oregon (Pac-12 champ game)

Before we code team-specific data, a morsel of context:

Having 5 games with astatine slightest 4 cardinal viewers doesn’t comparison optimally to different Power Five conferences.

For example, the SEC had 8 games implicit 6 cardinal viewers this season, and the Big Ten had seven. Meanwhile, the Big 12 had 3 games implicit 5 million.

But it’s what we should expect fixed the colonisation and passionateness wrong the Pac-12 footprint and the mediocre level of play in caller years. Fans ticker games that interaction the College Football Playoff, and determination person been precious fewer successful the Pac-12 of late.

As for the squad numbers …

Over the people of those 5 seasons, the Pac-12 produced 21 games at/above the 4 cardinal mark.

Oregon was progressive successful eight, followed by USC and Washington with six each, past Utah with four.

The Ducks’ occurrence successful the ratings crippled is the effect of their entreaty regionally and nationally; their show connected the field, which leads to information in important games; and their willingness to play marquee non-conference foes (Auburn and Ohio State).

But the numbers underscore a cardinal constituent impacting each facet of Pac-12 football:

Because of their tradition, resources and marque appeal, USC, Oregon and Washington are the programs champion equipped for success.

The league needs them to beryllium applicable connected the nationalist scene, consistently and concurrently.

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