TV Ratings Sink for Title Game

As Miami was putting up big numbers during Thursday night’s bowl championship series title game at the Rose Bowl, television ratings were going down.

The result was a 13.8 national rating with a 22% share of the audience, considerably lower than the 17.8/28 for last season’s BCS championship game at the Orange Bowl. The rating represented a 22.5% drop from last year’s title game.

The rating peaked at 15.7 between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m.--Miami led, 34-0, at halftime on its way to a 37-14 victory--then dropped to 13.6 for the next half-hour, then 12.7 to 12.5 and ended with 11.8.

In Los Angeles, the game averaged 16.8/28.

The game got the best rating in Oklahoma City, 27.4/35.

Next was Miami at 23.0/32, and Orlando did 22.0/31.

The markets in Lincoln and Omaha are not big enough to be metered by the Nielsen ratings service.

The four BCS bowls--the Rose, Orange, Sugar and Fiesta--drew a average rating of 10.9, well below last season’s combined average of 13.9.

The national ratings for the three other BCS bowls this year were 11.3 for the Fiesta, 9.5 for the Orange and 8.6 for the Sugar.

“The public, with its television clickers, seems to have clearly deserted the BCS’ three nonchampionship games,” New York television consultant Neal Pilson said. “Only one game has any significance.”

Pilson, former president of CBS Sports, said it would be easy for the conference commissioners who now control the BCS to go to a playoff format.

“And you could keep the current bowls intact,” he said. “You’d see a significant increase in the ratings for the New Year’s bowl games because they all would be part of a playoff.

“The semifinals would get a 17 rating, something like that, and the title game a 20 to 22.”