TOP RATINGS
Among the nation’s 56 major TV markets, these 10 posted the highest ratings for Monday night’s BCS Championship game:
1. Birmingham, Ala. 55.8
2. Jacksonville, Fla. 31.1
3. Knoxville, Tenn. 26.6
4. Atlanta 25.8
5. Orlando, Fla. 24.9
6. Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla. 24.2
7. Memphis, Tenn. 24.1
8. Greenville, S.C. 24.0
9. Nashville, Tenn. 23.5
10. Charlotte, N.C. 22.2
Source: ESPN
Note: The rating is the percentage of the market's TV households tuned in on average.
More than one-fourth of the households in metro Atlanta watched the BCS Championship game Monday night.
Florida State’s victory over Auburn posted a 25.8 Nielsen rating in the Atlanta TV market, meaning 25.8 percent of the area’s TV homes tuned in on average.
That rating translated to an audience of about 613,000 Atlanta households for the ESPN telecast.
The Atlanta rating was the fourth highest among the nation’s 56 major markets. The Birmingham, Ala., market posted by far the highest rating, 55.8. The next highest were Jacksonville, Fla., at 31.1 and Knoxville, Tenn., at 26.6.
The markets with the 10 highest ratings for the game were all in the footprints of the participating teams’ conferences, the ACC and SEC.
Nationally, the game posted a 15.3 rating in the major markets — up only slightly from Alabama’s blowout win over Notre Dame in last season’s title game (15.1). Although FSU’s 34-31 victory went down to the wire, Auburn’s 21-3 lead in the second quarter might have cut somewhat into the national audience this time.
The FSU-Auburn game posted a slightly lower rating in the Atlanta market than Alabama-Notre Dame (26.9).
Monday’s game ended college football’s BCS era. Starting with the 2014 season, the much-criticized BCS format for determining the national champion — in place since the 1998 season — will be replaced by a four-team playoff.
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