Ohio State-Notre Dame Game Put Up Outrageous TV Ratings

Ohio State's epic victory of Notre Dame drew an unreal audience Saturday night on NBC.

The Buckeyes beat the Fighting Irish 17-14 on an electric final play, and it's the early leader for the game of the year in college football.

It turns out the game also captivated the attention of a staggering number of college football fans.

NBC announced in a Monday release that the game averaged 10.5 million viewers across its platforms and peaked with 14.2 million viewers on Ohio State's game-winning drive.

It was also NBC Sports second-most watched regular season college football game in history. Only Notre Dame's 1993 win over Florida State drew more viewers at 22 million.

Fans were locked in on the Ohio State/Notre Dame game.

These numbers are proof people love great non-conference football games. Fans want to see big matchups.

People don't want to watch powerhouse programs play directional schools nobody has ever heard of. Ohio State and Notre Dame had the guts to schedule an awesome non-conference matchup, and a large chunk of college football fans responded by tuning in for the chaos and electric ending.

The numbers from Saturday night should incentivize programs and networks to push as hard as possible for matchups between elite teams.

Why should fans have to suffer through garbage non-conference games when they can, instead, get exposure like this?

Give people what they want, and that's great non-conference games. Networks who help accomplish that goal will clearly reap the rewards like NBC did for the Ohio State/Notre Dame game.