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2007 Bowl Game TV Ratings, Plus N(D)BC Ratings
by Chris Coleman, TechSideline.com

Now that college football season is over, we can take a look back and check out the most-watched bowl games. Television ratings are about what teams are playing and what other games they are up against in their time slot. Some ACC bowls fared better than expected. Others, not so much.

First, let's look at the entire table. Every bowl game, along with the teams and household impressions, is highlighted below. Bowls featuring ACC teams are in bold.

A couple of things stand out. First, the Chick-fil-A Bowl is the second most watched non-BCS Bowl, as usual. The Chick-fil-A Bowl is played on either December 30 or December 31 each year, on ESPN. There is no other bowl game on at the time, and it generally features good ACC-SEC regional rivalry games. This year it was Clemson vs. Auburn. Last year it was Virginia Tech vs. Georgia. The Chick-fil A Bowl is in a great position. They are the Holiday Bowl of the East coast, with slightly better ratings.

Take a look at the Gator Bowl. We already knew that not many people are interested in traveling to Jacksonville, but apparently nobody is interested in watching games played in that city on television, either. Virginia vs. Texas Tech isn't exactly an appealing matchup, and it doesn't help that the game is matched up with the Capital One Bowl. The Gator was the second lowest rated ACC bowl game.

If I were the Champs Sports Bowl, I'd take a good hard look at outbidding the Gator Bowl next year and attempting to slide up into the #3 spot in the ACC. Virginia Tech, Florida State or Clemson in Orlando would be great, especially matched up with a Big Ten team. The Champs Sports Bowl has been stuck with BC and Maryland the last two years, but it has the potential to be so much more. Would you make the trip to watch Virginia Tech vs. Penn State in Orlando? Frank Beamer vs. JoePa? I sure would.

Four ACC bowls were basically in the middle of the pack, or a little higher. The Music City Bowl, Meineke Car Care Bowl, Champs Sports Bowl and the Emerald Bowl all drew over 3,000,000 household impressions.

Georgia Tech? Ouch. Here's hoping the Hokies never end up in Boise. The Humanitarian Bowl was the only bowl not televised by The NFL Network to draw fewer than 1,000,000 household impressions. Not good. The ACC needs to separate itself from that bowl. A Liberty Bowl tie-in would be sweet.

The Humanitarian Bowl got us on the topic of lousy television ratings, so now it's time to discuss Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish play all of their home games on NBC. NBC can't be pleased, as their ratings have been dropping like a rock over the past couple of years.

According to a recent article in Business Week, here's how Notre Dame's Nielson Ratings have looked over the last few years.

Charlie Weis rejuvenated the program in 2005, taking the Irish to the Fiesta Bowl, where they lost to Ohio State. The next year, with ESPN and the Brady Quinn hype machine in full swing, their ratings surprisingly dropped, and by a significant margin. That despite the fact that Notre Dame went back to another BCS bowl, this time getting hammered by LSU in the Sugar Bowl.

In 2007, it was apparent that Notre Dame wasn't going to be very good from the beginning, and their ratings dropped off the map. 1.8 is an ugly number, half as good as their 2005 number. That's a huge dropoff in two years.

NBC pays $9 million a year for the right to televise Notre Dame home games. That contract expires in 2010. According to Business Week, NBC has given free ads to companies such as Allstate and Proctor & Gamble to make up the 30-second ads those companies purchased before the season started. The ads cost anywhere from $55,000-$80,000.