CFP Viewership Takes a Hit as Expanded Playoff Debuts
The expanded CFP was designed to be a TV gravity well, featuring more teams, more brands, more windows, and more can’t-miss rosters. However, the first round delivered a real warning flare: 9.9 million viewers on average across ABC/ESPN, and TNT/TBS/truTV, a 7 percent dip from last year’s first-round debut, with approximately 10.6 million views. In the details, you can see the story the rating headline can’t fully capture: Alabama–Oklahoma with 14.9 million views and Miami–Texas A&M with 14.8 million views carried like heavyweights, while the later cable windows dropped; Ole Miss–Tulane about 6.2 million views and James Madison–Oregon with less than 4.5 million views, with NFL competition and network placement doing real damage. The product didn’t just compete with other college games; it fought for oxygen against the pro football machine, and the machine won the night.
To understand why this matters, you’ve got to zoom out to the CFP’s recent TV baseline, because the playoff has always been a ratings-driven ecosystem. Over the last five CFP seasons, the semifinal and title numbers have swung hard depending on the matchup and calendar. In the 2020 season, the semifinals drew in over 19.50 million views and 19.27 million views, and the title game landed at around 19.07 million views. In the 2021 season, the semifinals dipped a little bit to roughly 17.1 million and 16.6 million views, but the championship rebounded to just over 22.5 million views. That pattern, while the semis were fluctuating, title stabilizing was higher when the storyline hit. This is exactly why networks pay what they pay.
Then came the modern peaks and valleys that basically tell the CFP’s whole broadcast story. The 2022 season semifinals popped 22.4 million and 21.7 million, but the championship dropped down to 17.2 million; a reminder that blowout risk and brand pull still matter, even on the biggest stage. The 2023 season was the rocket ship: a 27.6 million Rose Bowl semifinal, 18.7 million in the other semi, and a title game at an astonishing 25.0 million. The 2024 season launched a new era: first-round games drew 14.6, 13.3, 8.9, and 6.5 million, an average of 10.9 million views; before quarterfinals climbed as high as 21.0 million, and the championship posted 22.1 million viewers. That’s the blueprint: early rounds vary, later rounds cash in.
So, what does a first-round dip actually impact? For the networks, it’s leverage and strategy: ad rates, future sublicense decisions, and which matchups get broadcast TV versus cable all get re-litigated when the extra inventory doesn’t automatically equal extra audience. For the league, it’s brand equity; the CFP is selling a national championship pathway, but if early round games start to feel skippable, such as blowouts, smaller brands, or inconvenient windows, casual viewers save their attention for the quarters and semis. That changes how commissioners and executives think about seeding, scheduling, and the balance between maximizing revenue and protecting the playoffs’ weekly drive. The scary part isn’t one dead year; it’s the possibility that the first round becomes nice-to-have content instead of appointment viewing.
The fix isn’t to panic, but rather to manage the calendar and the presentation like the NFL does: protect premium windows, build consistent storytelling, and make sure the biggest brands don’t get hidden behind cable fragmentation. The 2025 numbers already hint at the formula: when the matchup feels like a headline, fans show up; when it feels like the undercard fighting the NFL and channel surfing, the audience leaks fast. The CFP’s long-term TV health will come down to one question: can the sport turn Round One into a cultural event, not just a bracket requirement, because in this era, ratings aren’t just measurement; they’re power, and power is what decides the next media deal, the next format tweak, and the next definition of what the playoff is supposed to be.
