The battle of the college football networks is off to an interesting start and the ACC is a factor.
@UT4x_champs has created an interesting graphic that illustrates how ESPN/ABC is far crushing FOX/CBS/NBC college football coverage.
Unfortunately, when your TV contract and ratings are as bad as the B1G’s, you’re forced to take disastrous short-term fixes.
And it’s only going to get worse. Ask any Ohio State fan how they feel about “Big Noon Kickoff.”
The money is drying up soon. https://t.co/oKUnyUIHen pic.twitter.com/xKXsVYl0iH
— CFB Stan (@UT4x_champs) October 1, 2025
If you include week 6, the winners of the 3 TV windows were…
12 PM Wisconsin Michigan 4.63 Million (FOX)
3:30 PM Alabama vs Vanderbilt 6.4 Million (ABC)
7:30 PM Miami vs Florida 6.0 Million (ABC)
That means of 18 weekend TV windows, the ABC/ESPN game has won 14 of them.
Other media observers are noticing too.
CBS is paying roughly $350 million per season for its Big Ten TV package, but viewership is lagging behind the SEC on ABC.
This weekend, No. 3 Oregon versus No. 7 Indiana has a chance to spike the network’s college football ratings.
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) October 10, 2025
While the SEC is the lionshare of ESPN/ABC success, the ACC has made some contribution to this. Two ACC/ACC on match-ups won their TV window, which is as many as the Big 12 and Big 10 have combined. In addition, 2 other windows featured an ACC team in their window, giving 5 total won windows where an ACC team was one of the participants, which is more than the Big 12 and Big 10 combined at 4.
That also begs the question of how ESPN/ABC has fleeced the ACC with their current TV deal. If you’re using this as a metric, then the SEC is, without argument, the #1 most viewed conference. The ACC is no worse than comparable and, in some ways, has exceeded the Big 12 and Big 10 in early-season viewing, while the primary media rights (not including the conference networks) significantly trail the other three conferences. Well, we knew that.
In fairness, the ACC is also very much responsible for this extremely undervalued deal; it continues to be very much be a point of frustration for the ACC schools and fans of their schools.
Come on ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, get out in front of ESPN and fight for your conference.
