Overall viewership for the 2026 college football season is down 11% compared with the first four weeks of 2025, with FBS broadcasts averaging 1.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen data reported by Fox News’ OutKick on Oct. 1, 2026.
OutKick reported that NFL ratings are essentially flat through three weeks and that some networks have small gains while others have small declines.
The outlet said the decline in college football viewership is not clearly tied to the usual explanations — weaker matchups, political controversy, increased television competition, measurement changes or distribution shifts — because each of the first four weeks featured at least one marquee game: LSU vs. Clemson (Week 1), Ohio State vs. Texas (Week 2), LSU vs. Ole Miss (Week 3) and Texas vs. Tennessee (Week 4).
OutKick noted the Ohio State–Texas matchup is especially notable compared with last year’s meeting, which drew 16.6 million viewers. This season’s rematch started later — at 7:49 p.m. ET on ABC — and OutKick said later kickoff times have been a trend.
The report highlighted a weather-related delay in Baton Rouge that pushed ABC’s Week 1 LSU–Clemson kickoff to 9:40 p.m. ET; OutKick said that game drew fewer than 6 million viewers despite Lane Kiffin making his head-coaching debut at LSU.
OutKick also suggested several other possible contributors, including the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff (which the outlet said reduces the consequences of early-season losses) and broader changes such as conference realignment and the NIL era, while acknowledging it is difficult to quantify how much those factors have affected television viewership.
The outlet wrote that expanding the playoff to 24 teams would be unlikely to address the decline and said television executives and conference officials should take a closer look if the double-digit drop continues.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
