# College Football Audiences Are Down 11 Percent Through October, With a Weak September and Big Ten Flops Blamed, Breitbart Reports Citing Front Office Sports

Breitbart says FBS games average 1.6 million viewers, down 11 percent from the first nine weeks of 2025. It adds that Game 7 of the WNBA Finals drew more than any cable college game Saturday.

- Section: [Culture](https://rightnewsrightnow.com/culture/)
- Published: 2026-11-05
- By: RightNewsRightNow Staff
- Canonical page: https://rightnewsrightnow.com/articles/college-football-tv-ratings-down-11-percent-october-nonconference-big-ten-wnba-finals-game-7-breitbart/

College football's television audience has shrunk this fall, Breitbart's Dylan Gwinn writes, using figures from Front Office Sports and analysis from The Athletic.

The numbers. Front Office Sports reported that FBS game broadcasts are averaging 1.6 million viewers across all Nielsen-rated networks, down 11 percent from the first nine weeks of the 2025 season, per Nielsen data the site received. Breitbart calls it a "crash" and says the sport was on a "meteoric rise" until now.

The comparison. Breitbart says Game 7 of the WNBA Finals drew 3.3 million viewers, more than any college football game on cable Saturday. It notes that game aired on USA Network, which it calls weaker than ESPN and other big cable channels that carry college football. It offers this as a sign of how bad things are. We covered OutKick's argument earlier that WNBA ratings claims mix streaming with TV, so the comparison is worth reading with care.

The reasons. Breitbart quotes The Athletic's Stewart Mandel on a weak September schedule: 48 nonconference games on five networks averaged 3.2 million viewers, down 9 percent, while 76 conference games fell a smaller 4.9 percent. Mandel says some of the drop is bad luck. LSU-Clemson drew 10.5 million a year ago, as a close top-10 game. The rematch, with Clemson unranked, ended 51-10 and drew 5.7 million.

Big Ten. Mandel also points to slumps by Oregon, Penn State, Michigan and, until last weekend, USC. Ohio State-Indiana on Oct. 17 was a hit at 10.4 million viewers on Fox, but Penn State-Michigan drew 4.5 million on CBS and USC-Penn State 2.9 million on NBC.

What may help. Breitbart points to this weekend's slate: Notre Dame against Miami in primetime with its playoff hopes on the line, and Alabama against LSU, where the loser would likely have three losses and miss the 12-team field.

What we could not check. We did not read the Front Office Sports or Athletic pieces, and we have not seen the Nielsen data. Breitbart gives no figure for the full-season drop beyond the first nine weeks.

## Source

Original reporting: [Breitbart](https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2026/11/04/college-football-sees-double-digit-ratings-crash-through-october)