(12-05-2023 02:20 PM)OUGwave Wrote:  

(12-05-2023 01:40 PM)Cubanbull1 Wrote:  Here are the Inventory Conference Control TV games with more than 1 million viewers
Ala@USF 4.84 ABC AAC
OrSt@ SJST 3.23 CBS MWC
SMU @Tula 1.88 ABC AAC Cham
Tula@Memphis 1.72 ESPN AAC
UTSA @Tula 1.72 ABC AAC
Miss@Tula 1.44 ESP2 AAC
TexT@Wyo 1.43 CBS MWC
Mia Oh @Tol 1.29 ESP MAC Cham
Boise@UNLV 1.26 FOX MWC Cham
AF @ Navy 1.21 CBS AAC
UCLA@SDSU 1.08 CBS MWC
Navy@Mem 1.05 ESPN AAC

Tulane did numbers. Four of our games over 1.4m viewers.

Yes, you guys did well.

(12-05-2023 01:40 PM)Cubanbull1 Wrote:  Here are the Inventory Conference Control TV games with more than 1 million viewers
Ala@USF 4.84 ABC AAC
OrSt@ SJST 3.23 CBS MWC
SMU @Tula 1.88 ABC AAC Cham
Tula@Memphis 1.72 ESPN AAC
UTSA @Tula 1.72 ABC AAC
Miss@Tula 1.44 ESP2 AAC
TexT@Wyo 1.43 CBS MWC
Mia Oh @Tol 1.29 ESP MAC Cham
Boise@UNLV 1.26 FOX MWC Cham
AF @ Navy 1.21 CBS AAC
UCLA@SDSU 1.08 CBS MWC
Navy@Mem 1.05 ESPN AAC

Thanks for posting!

I’m most impressed with Tulane @ Memphis. That AAC championship is pretty good going up against the game it did. (Still would have liked 2M+ but that’s just nitpicking). Obviously , Tulane-UTSA and Navy-Memphis are noteworthy as well. Seems like in a way, Memphis “won” the regular season ratings with two conference regular season games at over a million.

If you take out P5 opponents and conference championship weekend (less competition) then this is good data for AAC vs the other have-nots. The only four games over one million this season that were G5vG5 involved American teams and three were conference games (and none of those involved departing champ, SMU)

(12-06-2023 05:12 PM)UNT15 Wrote:  

(12-05-2023 01:40 PM)Cubanbull1 Wrote:  Here are the Inventory Conference Control TV games with more than 1 million viewers
Ala@USF 4.84 ABC AAC
OrSt@ SJST 3.23 CBS MWC
SMU @Tula 1.88 ABC AAC Cham
Tula@Memphis 1.72 ESPN AAC
UTSA @Tula 1.72 ABC AAC
Miss@Tula 1.44 ESP2 AAC
TexT@Wyo 1.43 CBS MWC
Mia Oh @Tol 1.29 ESP MAC Cham
Boise@UNLV 1.26 FOX MWC Cham
AF @ Navy 1.21 CBS AAC
UCLA@SDSU 1.08 CBS MWC
Navy@Mem 1.05 ESPN AAC

Thanks for posting!

I’m most impressed with Tulane @ Memphis. That AAC championship is pretty good going up against the game it did. (Still would have liked 2M+ but that’s just nitpicking). Obviously , Tulane-UTSA and Navy-Memphis are noteworthy as well. Seems like in a way, Memphis “won” the regular season ratings with two conference regular season games at over a million.

If you take out P5 opponents and conference championship weekend (less competition) then this is good data for AAC vs the other have-nots. The only four games over one million this season that were G5vG5 involved American teams and three were conference games (and none of those involved departing champ, SMU)

In 2017, so before our current contract, there was some back and forth with G4 fans about bowls. Separate discussion that "Ws-Ls in bowls alone are a terrible measure of conference strength." But, in terms of this TV viewership conversation, one or more said "Bowls matter for perception, because that's the only time general fans see you." Yet another thing that people say "For all 'G5'..." that is true for the G4 but not for the American.

So I looked at All games with 3-, 2-, and 1 million viewers. Already a stark difference, before taking out Bowl Games, which shows an even greater difference. Then looking at conference-controlled inventory and intra-conference games, and it shows what Commissioner Aresco (may he retire in peace) was saying all along - don't reflexively group us with them. We're different.

I went back and found it for '15-'21.

(12-15-2021 10:44 PM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  One more post here to add to historical threads.

This is a thing I've tracked for several years, the number of games by non-contract-bowl-conference with 3, 2, and 1 million viewers. Kind of got trumped by the very good article this year on the "4 Million Club." But this is what I have compiled since around 2017:

2015-2021 Big Viewer Games AFTER 2021 bowls
'15-'21 total games over 3 million viewers: AAC 38, mwc 4, MAC 4, CUSA 1
'15-'21 total games over 2 million viewers: AAC 72, CUSA 11, MAC 14, mwc 17, SBC 5
'15-'21 total games over 1 million viewers: AAC 136, mwc 60, CUSA 51, MAC 44, SBC 23

'15-'21 non-bowl games over 3 million viewers: AAC 26, MAC 2
'15-'21 non-bowl games over 2 million viewers: AAC 48, CUSA 4, MAC 2, mwc 6, SBC 1
'15-'21 non-bowl games over 1 million viewers:AAC 96, CUSA 13, MAC 14, mwc 27, SBC 12

'15-'21 conference controlled games over 3 million viewers: AAC 12, G4s 0
'15-'21 conference controlled games over 2 million viewers: AAC 27, mwc 1
'15-'21 conference controlled games over 1 million viewers:AAC 62, CUSA 2, MAC 2, mwc 9, SBC 5

'15-'21 intra-conference games over 3 million viewers: AAC 8, G4s 0
'15-'21 intra-conference games over 2 million viewers: AAC 16, G4s 0
'15-'21 intra-conference games over 1 million viewers: AAC 29, MAC 2 (CCGs), mwc 6 (4 reg season, 2 CCG), SBC 1 (reg)

I'll update for '22 and '23 - sometime, maybe after this bowl season is over.
But it will show more of the same. Compare the 2021 pull below to the list of 2023 games above.
In 2023, mwc got a little taste from the CBS portion (3 OTA games) of their current deal. Note - CBS has only given mwc OTA for autonomy conference teams playing at mwc and for AF's Commander in Chief games (and not all of them). And only one of those this year is better than "meh." Last year's CCG was just under two million on Fox, but this year's Fox mwc CCG number is arguably pretty meh.
Sun Belt increased TV coverage by 50% (overall, ESPN, Saturdays, ESPN2 all increased by 50% or more) and TV viewers lagged that increasing only by 43%.

Quote:2021 Big Viewer Games
2021 Bowl games and regular season:
Greater than three million viewers: AAC 5, CUSA 1
Greater than two million viewers: AAC 8, mwc 2, SBC 1, MAC 1, CUSA 1
Greater than one million viewers: AAC 17, SBC 7, mwc 9, CUSA 10, MAC 9

2021 non-bowl games
Greater than three million viewers: AAC 3
Greater than two million viewers: AAC 5, SBC 1, mwc 1
Greater than one million viewers: AAC 14, SBC 3, mwc 4, CUSA 3, MAC 2

2021 conference-controlled games
Greater than three million viewers: AAC 1
Greater than two million viewers: AAC 2
Greater than one million viewers: AAC 8, SBC 2, mwc 1

2021 intra-conference games
Greater than three million viewers: AAC 1
Greater than two million viewers: AAC 2
Greater than one million viewers: AAC 5, mwc 1

I thought I would look at how the American and the direct competition measure up against those broad and season-long average audiences by network. That's still imperfect - five days of the week, all timeslots lumped in there, and UTSA-Tulane is just in the same bin with say Bedlam or Miami-FSU. These are conference controlled inventory only, so e.g. Bama at USF yes but Rice at Texas no.

CBS overall average - 5.07 million
mwc CBS (3 PAC games) - 1.91 million
AAC CBS (AF at Navy) - 1.21 million

Fox overall average - 4.03 million
mwc Fox (CCG +1) - 0.9985 million

ABC overall average - 3.95 million
AAC ABC (3 games, 1 ooc) - 2.813 million

ESPN overall average - 1.96 million
MAC ESPN (CCG) - 1.29 million
AAC ESPN (7 games) - 0.808 million
CUSA ESPN (2 games) - 0.575 million
SBC ESPN (CCG +2) - 0.548 million

FS1 overall average - 0.587 million
mwc FS1 (13 games) - 0.305 million

ESPN2 overall average - 0.417 million
MAC ESPN2 (7 games) - 0.349 million
AAC ESPN2 (17 games) - 0.333 million
CUSA ESPN2 (3 games) - 0.319 million
SBC ESPN2 (10 games) - 0.258 million

FS2 overall average - 0.171 million
mwc FS2 (2 games) - 0.108 million

NFLN overall average - 0.088 million
AAC NFLN (1 game ) - 0.083 million
SBC NFLN (8 games) - 0.072 million

ESPNU overall average - 0.065 million
CUSA ESPNU (5 games) - 0.116 million
MAC ESPNU (13 games) - 0.080 million
AAC ESPNU (13 games) - 0.051 million
SBC ESPNU (9 games) - 0.045 million

REGULAR SEASON COMPLETED - THROUGH CCGs and ARMY-NAVY

Total Viewers
SEC 209,002,000
B10 201,485,000
PAC 153,868,000
B12 127,425,000
ACC 129,926,000
AAC 39,320,000
mwc 28,789,000
SBC 10,679,000
MAC 11,491,000
CUSA 7,445,000


Conference Controlled Inventory Viewers
SEC 186,382,000
B10 173,073,000
PAC 131,920,000
B12 110,155,000
ACC 99,476,000
AAC 21,715,000
mwc 11,919,000
SBC 5,204,000
MAC 4,773,000
CUSA 2,688,000

I did a little work on weeknight games for the non-autonomy conferences

OVERALL WEEKNIGHT AVERAGES -- by conference
Weeknights 373,325 -- AAC 682,300 ; Sun Belt 392,333 ; CUSA 234,000 ; MAC 221,571
Fridays 760,000 -- AAC 760,000
Thursdays 450,300 -- AAC 565,750 ; Sun Belt 399,750
Wednesdays 218,556 -- CUSA 275,500 ; MAC 199,500
Tuesdays 232,538 -- Sun Belt 377,500 ; MAC 238,125; CUSA 121,000
ESPN 789,889 -- AAC 838,000 ; Sun Belt 637,000 ; CUSA 567,000
ESPN2 350,118 -- AAC 388,750 ; MAC 343,000 ; Sun Belt 332,333 ; CUSA 319,000
ESPNU 101,846 -- CUSA 116,400; MAC 94,143 ; Sun Belt 83,000
Thurs ESPN 654,167 -- AAC 694,667 ; Sun Belt 637,000 ; CUSA 567,000
Thurs ESPN2 210,500 -- Sun Belt 377,500 ; AAC 179,000
Weds ESPN2 320,167 -- MAC 321,333 ; CUSA 319,000
Weds ESPNU 105,667 -- CUSA 145,000 ; MAC 77,667
Tues ESPN2 372,333 -- Sun Belt 377,500 ; MAC 369,750
Tues ESPNU 112,714 -- CUSA 121,000 ; MAC 106,500

AAC by Team Total Viewers:
Navy 13,076,000
Tulane 7,643,000
USF 5,547,000
SMU 4,268,000
Memphis 4,037,000
Rice 3,789,000
UTSA 3,459,000
Temple 1,899,000
Tulsa 1,589,000
UAB 1,550,000
FAU 1,140,000
Charlotte 1,029,000
UNT 855,000
ECU 633,000

AAC by Team Conference Controlled Inventory Viewers -- % share
Tulane 7,590,000 -- 22.79%
USF 5,547,000 -- 16.66%
SMU 3,999,000 -- 12.01%
Memphis 3,856,000 -- 11.58%
UTSA 3,136,000 -- 9.42%
Navy 2,336,000 -- 7.01%
Temple 1,899,000 -- 5.70%
Tulsa 1,589,000 -- 4.77%
UNT 855,000 -- 2.57%
ECU 633,000 -- 1.90%
Rice 579,000 -- 1.74%
UAB 470,000 -- 1.41%
FAU 413,000 -- 1.24%
Charlotte 364,000 -- 1.09%

(The %age comes from crediting both teams with viewership in intraconference games - the denominator is not just our 21.715 conference controlled inventory viewers but counting the 11.586 million intraconference viewers a second time)

I thought that my next entry in this thread would come after I get '22 and '23 bowl numbers (which I still haven't).

But I had a thought. And I checked the numbers.

2023 Total viewers reg season:
AAC new additions: 11,822,000
Sun Belt Conference: 10, 679,000

2023 Viewers of conference controlled inventory:
AAC new additions: 5,817,000
Sun Belt Conference: 5,204,000

The new additions are still behind the mwc in both, so don't rest on your laurels.