NEWS RELEASE NFF Media Contacts Phil Marwill | 917-579-4256 [email protected] Alan Cox | 972-556-1000 [email protected] Twitter: @NFFNetwork 2015 Report: College Football Ratings and Attendance Remain Strong Rise of digital streaming, network viewership and solid attendance figures signal sport’s relevance across the country. IRVING, Texas (April 6, 2016) – The National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame highlighted today multiple impressive facts from the 2015 college football season that emphasize the strong popularity of college football among millions of fans across the country. “The already intense interest in college football continues to grow,” said NFF President & CEO Steve Hatchell. “Embracing ever changing technology, the leaders of our sport have done a spectacular job in ensuring that the fan experience not only keeps pace but sets the standard in innovation. We are grateful to the conferences, bowl games and the media for their creativity and commitment in delivering a first-class product that allows fans to experience the game in every imaginable way.” The top highlights include: Digital Era Continues to Grow: The 2015 college football season continued the increasing trend of fans watching games through means other than just their televisions. ESPN’s streaming service, WatchESPN, saw per game increases of 54 percent in average minute impressions, 38 percent in total unique viewers and 53 percent in total minutes viewed. Factoring in both the regular season and bowl season, seven of the top 10 most-streamed college football games ever occurred during the 2015 season and all 10 have occurred since January 2015. The second CFP National Championship, presented on multiple streams through the ESPN Megacast, ranked as the best game ever on WatchESPN across all major metrics, excluding the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The game experienced increases of 23 percent in average minute impressions, 38 percent in unique viewers and 32 percent in total minutes compared to last year’s inaugural game. Major Networks See Steady Growth in Viewership: CBS averaged a 3.4 rating for SEC football this season, making it the highest rated regular-season college football package on any network for the seventh consecutive year. CBS scored the season’s highest-rated and most-watched college football game with the SEC Championship on Dec. 5, and its coverage of the 116th Army-Navy Game was the highest rated and most-watched game between the rivals since 1999 and 1994, respectively. NFF Release Page 1 of 15 ESPN-rated networks (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPNEWS) averaged 1,852,000 viewers for the 270 games televised in the 2015 college football regular season, a rise of 4 percent in viewership compared to 2014 regular season. ESPN alone averaged 2,721,000 viewers for the 74 games the network aired, marking the fourth consecutive year viewership has increased. The top five cable TV audiences of all time are all college football postseason games. Heading into conference championship week, ABC Saturday Night Football was the most- watched series in all of college football, across all networks, averaging 5,340,000 viewers. College football games on FOX were up 19 percent in rating and up 15 percent in viewership in 2015. This season, FOX saw its highest-rated and most-watched regular season game ever, with Stanford’s win over Notre Dame on Nov. 28, which posted a 4.3/11 with more than 7.3 million viewers. NCAA Programs Attract More than 49 Million and SEC Sets Attendance Record: The SEC set an all-time record across all conferences with 7,784,376 fans in 2015, leading all FBS conferences in average attendance for the 18th consecutive year with 78,630 fans per game. The 666 NCAA football programs drew 49,057,966 fans at home games, neutral-site games and postseason games in 2015. The numbers symbolize a phenomenal increase of 156 percent from the 19,134,159 fans that the NCAA reported when they first started collecting attendance figures in 1948*. The American Athletic Conference, Big Ten and the Sun Belt all set single-season conference attendance records. The 41 bowl games this season (including the CFP National Championship) attracted 1,796,498 spectators to the stands (43,817 per contest), and 15 bowl games had crowds in excess of 50,000. Eleven of the returning 39 bowl games increased by more than 4,000 fans over last season. The FCS attracted a record 258,066 fans to its 23 playoff games while the Division II National Championship game in Kansas City, Kan., set an attendance record of 16,181 spectators. NFF Release Page 2 of 15 The game has benefited enormously from the commitment of every major media sports outlet, including the American Sports Network, Big Ten Network, BYUtv, CBS, CBS Sports Network, ESPN, ESPN Classic, ESPN on ABC, ESPN2, ESPN3, ESPNews, ESPNU, FOX Sports, FOX Sports 1, FOX Sports 2, FOX College Sports, FOX Sports Net, the Longhorn Network, NBC, NBC Sports Network, Pac-12 Networks, Root Sports, SEC Network and multiple regional and local outlets. Throughout the regular and bowl seasons, these outlets continue to capitalize on college football’s ever-increasing popularity to produce an increasingly dynamic product that engages fans on new levels. Regular Season Attendance Highlights The overall attendance for NCAA football games across all three divisions drew 49,057,966 fans at home games, neutral-site games and postseason games in 2015. The Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) drew 37,957,921 spectators or an average of 43,933 fans per game. The Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) pulled in 5,571,456 fans, followed by Division II with 3,003,019 and Division III with 2,357,469. The SEC led all FBS conferences in average attendance for the 18th consecutive year with an all-conference record 78,630 fans per home game, with more than 7.7 million total fans attending SEC games in 2015. Six SEC schools were in the nation’s Top 10 in average attendance. The top-five conferences for average attendance included the SEC (78,630), Big Ten (66,008), Big 12 (57,347) Pac-12 (51,880) and ACC (49,033). The Big Ten set a new single-season attendance record in 2015 with 6,534,801 fans attending games, marking the third consecutive season that more than six million fans attended home and neutral site contests and the fourth time in the past five years. Average attendance at American Athletic Conference set a single-season conference record with 2,419,994 fans attending home and neutral site games. The conference saw a 9.1 percent increase to average 31,842 fans per game in 2015. Additional conference setting total attendance records in 2015 included the Sun Belt Conference in the FBS (1,101,365) and the Big South in the FCS (291,162). Michigan returned to the top of the FBS attendance charts after averaging 110,168 fans per home game in 2015. Five other programs also averaged more than 100,000: Ohio State (107,244), Texas A&M (103,622), LSU (102,004), Alabama (101,112) and Tennessee (100,584). Penn State (99,799), Georgia (92,746), Florida (90,065) and Texas (90,035) rounded out the top ten. Other universities with more than 80,000 fans per home game included Nebraska (89,998), Auburn (87,451), Oklahoma (85,357), Clemson (84,038) and Notre Dame (80,795). Michigan has led the nation in individual average game attendance for all but one year since 1974 when in 2014 both Ohio State and Texas A&M notched higher totals. Temple posted the largest attendance gain during the 2015 season, playing in front of an average home crowd of 44,159, an increase of 20,789 per game. NFF Release Page 3 of 15 Other universities that saw an increase of more than 5,000 fans per home game included Memphis (9,951), Akron (8,928), Cincinnati (8,257), Pittsburgh (6,835), Houston (5,669), Southern Miss (5,595), Michigan (5,259) and New Mexico State (5,217). Alabama led all teams with 1,354,327 fans attending 15 games in 2015 (including all home and away games and the postseason). Ten other teams also eclipsed more than one million spectators during the season: Florida (1,168,182), Ohio State (1,156, 844), Michigan (1,141,598), Tennessee (1,131,422), Penn State (1,112,170), Texas A&M (1,104,438), Auburn (1,087,875), Clemson (1,082,512), Georgia (1,074,153) and Michigan State (1,064,492). Montana again claimed the FCS attendance title, drawing 168,975 fans for an average of 24,139 per home game. Jacksonville State (20,598), Yale (20,547), James Madison (19,498) and Montana State (19,172) rounded out the top five in average attendance. Grand Valley State (Mich.) captured the Division II attendance title for the second year in a row, attracting 74,187 fans for an average of 12,365 per game. Tuskegee (Ala.) with 10,663; Pittsburg State (Kan.) with 9,856; Central Missouri with 9,099; and North Alabama with 7,970 rounded out the top five in average attendance. Saint John’s (Minn.) led Division III in attendance at 53,372 fans for an average of 7,625 per game. Rounding out the top five in average attendance were Wisconsin-Whitewater with 6,122; Emory & Henry (Va.) with 5,496; Geneva (Pa.) with 4,797; and Hampden- Sydney (Va.) with 4,710. The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) earned its 37th FCS attendance title in 38 years, averaging 12,823 fans for a total of 653,962.