For all the furor over NIL, tampering, or players transferring to one school on Monday and then another by Friday, viewership continues to grow. The game keeps growing in popularity despite all its warts and changes. Given that TV money serves as the primary revenue source for the sport, and given that TV money ultimately flows from eyeballs, looking at viewer trends tells us some things about where the game stands and where it might be headed. In turn, that raises questions how UNC best navigates the rapidly fluctuating landscape.
Footballscoop.com assembled a list of the 100 most-watched college football games in 2025. Over the past three seasons, the number of games earning 10 million of more viewers has grown from 8 to 22. Games with 4+ million viewers have grown from 66 to 90. People predicting a media rights bubble have to confront the fact that college football increasingly distances itself from the competition as a proven gatherer of eyeballs. The top 10 college football games in viewers last season matched or exceeded the Oscars awards show. The Miami-Indiana championship game, with 30 million viewers, nearly doubled it.
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In a world where attention wins, no matter the means of earning it, the hiring of Bill Belichick was thought to be a win by that measure alone. Reviewing the rankings for 2025, however, UNC lands on the list only once. The TCU game opening weekend garnered 6 million viewers to rank 50th. In 2024, UNC didn’t make an appearance on the list, In 2023, UNC put two games onto the list, the Mayo Bowl against West Virginia at 69th (3.9 million) and the opener against South Carolina (3.4 million). Drake Maye and Omarion Hampton, at a much lower cost than Bill Belichick and entourage, drew equal viewer interest.
Some team comparisons over the last three years:
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SEC leader: Alabama: 13, 9, 11
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B1G leader: Ohio State: 10, 12, 9
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ACC leader: Miami: 7, 4, 2
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ACC #3: Georgia Tech: 4, 4, 1
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SEC Neighbor: South Carolina: 2, 4, 3
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Traditional SEC Doormat: Vanderbilt: 5, 2, 0
The three ACC programs with the most appearances are Miami, Georgia Tech, and Clemson. How did they get these 32 appearances? Start with the Playoffs!, which accounts for five of them (Miami 4, Clemson 1). Bowl games and an ACC championship game add six. Regular season match-ups with SEC programs account for seven more, while Notre Dame match-ups appear only twice. Only eight of the 32 come from ACC vs ACC regular season games, (the 2023 GT-Clemson game counts twice in the 32 total).
Meanwhile, South Carolina and Vanderbilt rode SEC membership to 16 games in the top 100 over the last three years. Three of those were bowl games, and two of them came out of conference in the regular season. Do the math: South Carolina and Vanderbilt combined for more regular season conference games in the top 100 (11) than Miami, Clemson, and Georgia Tech could generate (8). When Vanderbilt has more top 100 appearances than Clemson over the past two years, it becomes easier to understand why some ACC schools (including Carolina) want to hit the exits.
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Conference comparisons over the past three years confirm:
There’s certainly some truth in the observation that media companies can create their own reality with enough promotion and propaganda. Attributing those gaps entirely to nefarious Mouse motives, however, seems a stretch. Vanderbilt wasn’t propped up on the national stage by ESPN; they fielded a good football team with an arresting personality at quarterback. ABC/ESPN invested tremendous hype and promotion into UNC’s season opener last season and gave it an exclusive stage; Belichick and Lombardi blew it.
Miami’s run to the title game this season creates an opportunity for the ACC to build upon next season. UNC’s opening sequence of TCU, Clemson, and Notre Dame provide an excellent opportunity to make a splash and return UNC football to national relevancy. The SEC suddenly seems wobbly as the game’s premier brand, at least in game results if not viewers. Can UNC and the ACC make a move?
What are your thoughts?
