The top-10 showdown between Ohio State and Penn State was the premier matchup in college football in Week 8.
On Tuesday, Sports Media Watch (SMW) announced Saturday's most-watched college football games. Ohio State-Penn State led all matchups with an average audience of 9.96 million viewers, while the next-largest audiences were Tennessee-Alabama (8.01 million), Duke-Florida State (4.08 million), Michigan-Michigan State (3.73 million) and Utah-USC (3.23 million).
The 9.96 million viewers for Ohio State-Penn State ranks third among the most-watched college football games in 2023, as Colorado-Oregon (10.03 million in Week 4) and Ohio State-Notre Dame (9.98 million in Week 4) have hold of the top-two spots.
This season, Ohio State has attracted audiences of 4.65 million vs. Indiana, 1.22 million vs. Youngstown State, 2.82 million vs. Western Kentucky, 9.98 million vs. Notre Dame, 4.51 million vs. Maryland and 9.96 million vs. Penn State, according to SMW. The Buckeyes' Week 7 matchup with Purdue does not appear on the SMW weekly rankings because it was streamed exclusively on Peacock, preventing Nielsen from charting and tracking its viewership numbers.
