Florida's contest at LSU on Oct. 12 was the most watched college football game on ESPN in nearly two years as the telecast averaged 6.45 million viewers.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Why do you come to the University of Florida?
- For the third year in a row, Florida has risen in the U.S. News & World Report Top Public Schools rankings, climbing to No. 7. For the third consecutive year, UF appears in the top-10 rankings of national public universities.
- Details: https://news.ufl.edu/2019/09/uf-is-no-7/
- UF is currently the only school currently ranked inside the top 10 in academics and the AP Poll.
- Academic Rankings: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/university-of-florida-1535
- AP Poll Rankings: https://www.apnews.com/APTop25CollegeFootballPoll
- Florida's rich tradition of on-field success with eight SEC championships and three national championships.
- Student-athletes at Florida are prepared and developed for success careers in the NFL, as the Gators have the third-most alums on active NFL rosters in 2019.
- Recent Gators in the NFL Weekly Recap: https://floridagators.com/news/2019/10/14/football-gators-in-the-nfl-week-six.aspx?path=football
In addition to all of the above reasons, the University of Florida has been at the epicenter of the College Football world from a fan interest and viewership standpoint since the start of the season.
- Florida's contest at LSU on Oct. 12 garnered an average of 6.450 million viewers and peaked at an audience of 7.428 million during the second half.
- The game was the most watched college football game in nearly two years and is among ESPN's best five October audiences since 1994.
- Florida kicked off the 150th season of college football against Miami in the Camping World Kickoff on Aug. 24.
- That contest kicked off in primetime on ESPN and averaged 5.966 million viewers during the game. With that said, it peaked at 7.4 million viewers during the second half.
- ESPN listed the game as the second-most watched Saturday game in the past three seasons.
- Not to be dismissed, the Gators primetime contest at Kentucky averaged 3.137 million viewers and its noon game last weekend vs. South Carolina averaged 3.193 million viewers, which both sit among the networks highest rated games of the season.
- Overall, Florida football has been the top-rated cable TV show (all genres) on the day of its game in three of its four of its ESPN appearances this year.
- Florida and Auburn was the SEC on CBS featured game of the week on Oct. 5 and drew 6.427 million viewers, which marked a 36 percent increase from the Alabama-Ole Miss game from the week prior.
Overall, Florida football has been a part of three of the top 12 viewed college football games in 2018 through week eight.
Florida has been the featured game on ESPN's marquee pregame show,
College GameDay Built by The Home Depot, three times. That show typically averages more than 1.9 million viewers per week.
Meanwhile, Florida is the first school in three years to be the featured game on that program three times in the first seven weeks.
Florida has been seen by a total of 25.173 million viewers thus far this season, with 3.622 million coming from UF's College GameDay appearances.
