Penn State football’s season opener against West Virginia this past Saturday was among the weekend’s highest-rated games.
LSU/Fla State: 9.165m
Colorado/TCU: 7.262m
Ohio State/Indiana: 4.646m
WVU/Penn State: 3.497M
Nebraska/Minn: 3.492
North Carolina/South Carolina: 3.4m
Oregon St/San Jose St: 3.234m
Rice/Texas: 3.21m
Northwestern/Rutgers: 2.679m
Virginia/Tennessee: 2.464m— Sports TV Ratings (@SportsTVRatings) September 6, 2023
With a 3.497m number, PSU-WVU placed fourth, behind Florida State-LSU (9.165m), Colorado-TCU (7.262m) and Ohio State-Indiana (4.646m.)
Florida State-LSU was by far the weekend’s highest-rated game for obvious reasons.
It was a matchup between two top 10 teams that didn’t have any competing games due to it being played Sunday night. Colorado-TCU was intriguing mainly because it was the first game of the polarizing Deion Sanders’ head-coaching tenure.
Ohio State-Indiana was a 3:30 matchup and was historic because it was the first Big Ten conference game on CBS. PSU-WVU was historic for a similar reason. It was the first Big Ten Game on NBC.
CBS, FOX and NBC are the stations that carry Big Ten games in the new billion-dollar TV rights deal that went into effect this season. For the Penn State game, Noah Eagle did the play-by-play and Penn State legend Todd Blackledge was the color man.
Penn State seemed to generally enjoy the broadcast, and they surely enjoyed the game. PSU took care of WVU 38-15, with the story of the game being the impressive starting QB debut of Drew Allar.
Allar hit WR KeAndre Lambert-Smith for a 72-yard touchdown pass on Penn State’s fourth offensive play and rolled from there. The former five-star recruit from Medina, Ohio ended the night going 21-29 for 325 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.
Rounding out the top 10 for the Week 1 ratings are: Nebraska/Minnesota (3.492m), North Carolina/South Carolina (3.4m), Oregon State/San Jose State (3.234m), Rice-Texas (3.21m), Northwestern/Rutgers (2.679m) and Virginia/Tennessee (2.464m).
Penn State’s game this week is against Delaware on Peacock, so it probably won’t get as big of a rating.
