The games may not have been exciting, but the ratings were solid.
According to 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 pack with 14.3 million viewers, ranking 35th among the 74 previous college football playoff games.
Friday night's Indiana-Notre Dame game averaged 13.4 million viewers, marking Notre Dame's most-watched game since 1993, when 22 million tuned in for their matchup with Florida State.
The Saturday afternoon games brought down the overall average. Only 6.4 million viewers watched SMU-Penn State, which kicked off at noon ET. In the 4:00 p.m. ET game, 8.6 million tuned in to watch Clemson face Texas.
The viewership 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 released. It will be interesting to see if, and to what extent, the college games impacted the typical NFL standalone audience.
All of the first-round CFP games were one-sided, with the final scores not reflecting the idea that none of the road teams had a real chance to win.
We'll have to wait and see if the quarterfinals offer a different outcome.
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