‘Games Literally Don’t Matter As Much,’ ‘Schedule Was Pretty Bad’ — Fans React to Massive Drop in College Football Viewership in 2026
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College football has delivered some memorable moments early in the 2026 season, but its television audience has not matched the massive numbers seen last year.
The average television audience is down double digits through the first four weeks despite several individual games posting huge numbers.
Fans Sound Off on College Football’s Viewership Drop in 2026 Season
Texas’ comeback win over Ohio State has emerged as the most-watched college football game of the season to this point. The ABC broadcast attracted 14 million viewers, making it the most-viewed Week 2 game in college football history and the most-watched regular-season college football game on an ESPN platform in a decade.
The audience reportedly peaked at 16.4 million viewers during the game. However, setting that game aside, FBS game broadcasts across Nielsen-rated networks are reportedly averaging 1.7 million viewers through the first four weeks, down 11% from the same point in 2025.
The drop sparked plenty of discussion throughout the college football community.
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“1) People are probably growing pretty tired of the non-stop SEC/B1G lovefest. 2) Now imagine what that number could drop to if big-time regular-season games have substantially less implications with an expanded Playoff,” CFB Kings wrote.
“The schedule was pretty bad to start the season,” Gifdsports tweeted.
“It was one of the worst, if not the very worst, non-conference season of college football in my life-time. Very few compelling games and far too many buy wins. I warned this would happen years ago with tons of posts saying it would happen. We arrived. It needs fixing,” an account named “Big Ten Information and News” wrote.
College Football with Sam wrote: “This non-conference slate was weak. We need the 11-12 Power 4 opponents’ schedule now!”
Outside of Texas-Ohio State, just one other game has surpassed the 10-million-viewer mark this season. That came when Pete Golding’s Ole Miss defeated LSU 32-24 in Lane Kiffin’s return to Oxford.
Overall, 11 regular-season games crossed that threshold last season, which is why reactions to the year-over-year decline continued.
“With the expanded playoff, games literally don’t matter as much. And people want to expand the playoffs MORE??? Every Saturday used to be life or death because even one loss could be catastrophic for your title chances,” 97.1 The Fan’s James D Koh wrote.
“Teams playing [expletive] teams the first few weeks of the season don’t help these numbers. Viewership only going up from here on out,” SEC Unfiltered founder Chris Phillips wrote.
“People will make WAY too much out of this. THERE’S A SIMPLE FIX. Week 0 – all FCS vs FBS games, and then that’s it for the FCS games that no one wants to see. 2 Georgia, 4 Miami, and 6 Indiana didn’t play anything worth watching in non-conference play,” analyst Pete Fiutak wrote.
Co-host of the Bootleg Football Podcast, Brett Kollmann, identified multiple factors working behind the drop.
“1. Games between big programs just feel like two groups of mercenaries facing off. The teams don’t feel as tied to the fanbase or community as much anymore because guys are only there for like eight months,” Kollmann wrote. “2. Mercenary teams means sloppy football for the first month. And not in the fun Pac-12 way.
“3. The broadcast feels like a vehicle that purely exists to get you sign up for a sportsbook. They have to dial it back. It’s too much. 4. The pregame shows don’t feel like they actually love the sport, but rather just love the conference that pays them more. 5. Vibes are off, generally.”
Following a big opening stretch in 2025, the sport has yet to draw the same massive national audiences this season, but that trend could still change as the season progresses.
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With several major games remaining on the schedule, college football has opportunities to see its television audience increase over the next two months. One of those games will be Miami at Notre Dame on Nov. 7. Last year’s meeting between the programs attracted 10.8 million viewers on ABC.
The PFN Playoff Meter currently gives Miami an 86.9% chance of reaching the College Football Playoff, while Notre Dame has an 87.7% chance.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.
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