College football’s regular season wrapped up over Thanksgiving weekend, and the Southeastern Conference and Disney-owned networks continue to dominate college football viewership, according to data for the 2025 season.
ESPN, which is owned by Disney, holds the media rights to the College Football Playoff, which revealed its field for the 2025-26 bracket on Sunday. ESPN agreed to a $7.8 billion deal to broadcast the CFP games that runs through the 2031-32 season. The deal begins next year.
The new deal allows for a re-negotiation of the playoff format, which is currently set at 12 teams. Ahead of this year’s playoff selection, ESPN and the CFP had to extend its deadline for finalizing a plan because the various major conferences have disagreed on the number of teams in the field and the number of automatic qualifier spots, if any. The setup now has to be determined by January 23, or the playoff will remain at 12 teams in the upcoming contract.
Currently, the SEC and Big Ten control much of the future format, according to ESPN. Those are the two leagues that figure to make up the majority of the playoff field this year and are, by far, the two most watched conferences this year.
The data, compiled by Sports Media Watch, shows viewership numbers compiled by the network’s own releases and are based on Nielsen measurements. The figures do not include games broadcast on the SEC Network, ACC Network, CBS Sports Network, ESPN+ or Peacock as those channels and streaming platforms are not Nielsen-rated, according to Sports Media Watch.
Five of the top six teams in average weekly viewership, and nine of the top 15 in total viewership, are in the SEC.
Games shown on ABC have brought in more total viewership than any other network. ABC and other Disney-owned networks secured the rights to the top SEC games after the league’s previous deal with CBS ended. According to Yahoo, the SEC’s weekly 3:30 p.m. ET game on CBS was the “highest rated college football package on any network” for 14 straight seasons.
The high viewership has continued with the same product now aired on a new network. Disney-owned networks dramatically outpace any other company for college football viewership.
The Big Ten games are aired largely on networks owned by FOX, Paramount or Comcast. The league signed a seven-year, $7 billion deal with FOX, CBS and NBC that began last season when UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington entered the Big Ten.
According to tax records compiled by ESPN, the SEC made $563 million from TV and radio rights for the 2023-24 season. In the same year, the Big Ten made $845.6 million.
The Big Ten is losing the battle for viewership to the SEC, but its wallets are winning.
