ESPN — unsurprisingly — pulled in a solid number of viewers for the first round of the College Football Playoff.
The most-watched game was Friday night’s contest in Norman between Alabama and Oklahoma. ESPN announced that 14.9 million viewers tuned in, with a peak audience of 16.4 million viewers. It ranks as the highest-rated first-round game in the two years of the 12-team format and is No. 5 among all college football games in the 2025 season.
Right behind it was Saturday’s game between Texas A&M and Miami at Kyle Field, which saw Miami score a late touchdown to advance to the Cotton Bowl quarterfinal against Ohio State. That one averaged 14.8 million viewers and peaked at 19.3 million. It was the No. 2 most-watched first-round game since the current Playoff format was introduced and the sixth most-watched college football game of the season.
The '25-'26 #CFBPlayoff First Round delivered 9.9M avg. viewers via ABC/ESPN & @TNTSportsUS @AlabamaFTBL–@OU_Football | 14.9M viewers @CanesFootball–@AggieFootball | 14.8M @GreenWaveFB–@OleMissFB | 6.2M @JMUFootball–@oregonfootball | 4.4M pic.twitter.com/S7y1Ng1kE7
— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) December 23, 2025ESPN also announced the ratings for the other two first-round games.
Ole Miss vs. Tulane averaged a total of 6.2 million viewers, peaking at 8.3 million. Oregon vs. James Madison was seen by an average of 4.4 million, peaking at 7.2 million. Both games were sublicensed to TNT Sports, which aired them on TNT, TruTV, and HBO Max.
ESPN announces massive ratings for College Football Playoff first-round games Saturday Down South.
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