Around The Campus: College Football Ratings, An Eligibility Lawsuit, Rivalry Matchups, More ...Middle East

No college football on tonight or tomorrow, as there’s just no use in trying to compete with the NFL on those nights, but still a few items we can get to. Week 1 of the college football season did some MASSIVE ratings, which is obviously a good thing. Plus, a pair of current players have filed a lawsuit against the NCAA, and we have a few fun rivalry matchups set for this Saturday. Let’s get to it.

College Football Week 1 Does Big Ratings

We might not be thrilled about the current chaotic state of college football, and the whole sport might seem to be in flux at times, but that most certainly hasn’t stopped people from watching it. The ratings came out for last weekend’s prime time games, and oh boy, did they do some numbers.

Ohio State vs. Texas on FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff was one of four matchups to exceed 10 million viewers over the weekend. It also set the record for the most-watched Week 1 game ever with 16.6 million viewers. It even peaked at 18.5 million from 2:00 PM to 2:30 PM.

As for the other prime time games, Notre Dame at Miami hit 10.8 million, Alabama at Florida State hit 10.7 million, and LSU at Clemson hit 10.2 million. For reference, only six regular-season games in all of the 2024 season went past the 10 million viewer mark.

So while college football still has a little way to go in stabilizing the sport off the field, the on-field product is about as good and popular as it’s ever been.

Ratings Always Rise at NOON ?FOX's BIG NOON SATURDAY scored 16,623,000 viewers for Ohio State's win over Texas ?– Most-watched Week 1 CFB game on any net in history– Third most-watched regular season CFB game ever on FOX– Peaked at 18,569,000 viewers from 3-3:15 PM ET pic.twitter.com/P1Eg3FnjxB

Vanderbilt Players File Lawsuit With NCAA Over Eligibility

Two Vanderbilt football players, part of a group of 10 collegiate athletes, have filed a lawsuit with the NCAA over eligibility restrictions. Linebacker Langston Patterson and defensive lineman Issa Ouattara, and eight others, are suing the NCAA in a class action lawsuit claiming the eligibility rules only allowing four seasons of competition during a five-year timespan violate antitrust laws.

Their attorney, Ryan Downton, issued the following statement:

News: A group of athletes, led by two Vanderbilt football players, has filed a class action lawsuit to challenge the NCAA's redshirt rule, saying athletes should get all five years to complete.The co-lead counsel is Ryan Downton, the lawyer who represented Diego Pavia. pic.twitter.com/1YTFHRnfwz

Downton also successfully represented current Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia when he filed an injunction for eligibility to play this season.

The NCAA has relaxed its football eligibility restrictions in recent years, allowing players to play up to four regular-season games plus five postseason games and still maintain a redshirt season, granting them a fifth year of eligibility. However, the rest of the sports have no such eased restrictions, and an athlete can lose their redshirt year if they play even the slightest amount.

I would imagine that at some point soon, this lawsuit will lead to other sports having to ease redshirt restrictions to go along with football’s rules.

Early Rivalry Matchups

While the final week of the college football season is traditionally ‘rivalry week,’ Week 2 has some outstanding and underrated rivalry matchups ahead. Sure, it’s nice having essentially all season to prepare for a rivalry matchup so a team can be in its final form, but there’s something about an early-season test against a hated rivalry that’s just so fun to watch.

On Saturday, we get a pair of underrated and highly contested rivalry matchups – Iowa at Iowa State, and Kansas at Missouri. While neither of these rivalries contains regulars in the national title picture, all four squads have high hopes this season. But most importantly, these teams just hate each other.

The Iowa and Iowa State rivalry dates back to 1894, and if you went to either school, are from the state, or are just from the Midwest in general, you understand how much these teams hate each other. The Kansas and Missouri rivalry is even older than that, with those two teams meeting for the first time 134 years ago.

So while this weekend’s matchups might not be as flashy as last weekend’s with three top-ten showdowns, these rivalry games should provide plenty of fireworks. There’s just nothing better than a good, old-fashioned college football rivalry matchup to really break us into the season.

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