First round of college football playoffs average 10.6 million viewers

The games weren’t good. The ratings weren’t bad.

Via SportMediaWatch.com, the four first-round games of the 12-team college football playoffs averaged 10.6 million viewers.

The Tennessee-Ohio State game on Saturday night led the way, with 14.3 million. That ranks 35th of the 74 prior college football playoff games.

Friday night’s Indiana-Notre Dame game averaged 13.4 million. For Notre Dame, it was the program’s most-watched game since 1993, when 22 million tuned in for the showdown with Florida State.

The Saturday afternoon games dragged down the average. Only 6.4 million watched SMU-Penn State, which started at noon ET. In the 4:00 p.m. ET game, 8.6 million watched Clemson and Texas.

The numbers for the Saturday NFL games — Texans-Chiefs at 1:00 p.m. ET and Steelers-Ravens at 4:30 p.m. ET — have not yet been reported. It will be interesting to see whether and to what extent the college games ate into the usual NFL standalone audience.

All of the first-round CFP games were lopsided. The final scores didn’t reflect the notion that none of the road teams had a chance to win.

We’ll see if the quarterfinal round is any different.

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