I've done a bit of research, using the sportsmediawatch website:
http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/college-...v-ratings/
The average 2017 ABC college football broadcast did about 4M viewers. The median is about 3.5M. The 12pm and 3:30pm ET ABC broadcast average closer to about 3.2-3.4M viewers - and the 7pm ET primetime ABC broadcasts get closer to 6M viewers. The top-10 ABC broadcasts ranged from 5M to 12M viewers.
The average 2017 ESPN college football broadcast does about 2M viewers. The median is about 1.8M. The 10pm ET late night and weeknight games do a little less, closer to 1.7M and the 7pm ET primetime ESPN broadcasts do more, about 3M viewers. The top-10 ESPN broadcasts ranged from 3.5M to 7M viewers.
For 2017 ESPN2, the average is about 650K viewers, with a little more on Saturday and closer to 500K for late 10pm ET Saturday and weeknight games. The median was about 480K. The top-10 ESPN2 broadcasts ranged from about 1M to 2.1M.
The three AAC 2017 regular season games and the AAC CCG on ABC achieved or surpassed the averages. UCF-USF (4.64M), Memphis-UCLA(3.24M), Houston-Texas-Tech(3.85M), and UCF-Memphis(3.8M).
All of the AAC 2017 games on ESPN this year did substantially worse than the average and no where close to the top. Only USF-Illinois was somewhat close to the average, with 1.37M viewers.
The AAC had some above the ESPN2 average, Memphis-Tulsa (683K), Cincinnati-Temple (697K) and Cincinnati-Navy (753K), and some below, UCF-SMU (369K), UCF-Memphis (first time, 442K), USF-Tulane (284K).
What this tells me is that the very best AAC games are worthy of P5 money, but not elite P5 money. The next tier of 6-8 games are worthy of the occasional ESPN or ESPN2 broadcast, but they're not likely to significantly exceed average time slot expectations. There are also a handful of games that are worthy of filler for ESPNU. I'm sure there will be an increase in the AAC contract, but the lack of ability to generate elite ratings will keep the AAC well below even the halfway benchmark compared to P5 payout levels.