The USC Trojans vs Michigan Wolverines matchup in Ann Arbor was one of the most highly-anticipated college football games in 2024. Unsurprisingly, two of the biggest and most passionate fan bases in the nation generated historic college football TV ratings.
Even without USC vs Michigan lacking star power on the field, with the likes of Caleb Williams and Jim Harbaugh in the NFL, it was a matchup between two of the best teams in college football. It also came with significant stakes in the college football rankings and for the 12-team College Football Playoff picture.
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USC took the field looking to prove it belonged in the Big Ten Conference and could compete with the physical style of football that programs like Michigan are known for. While the Trojans didn’t walk away with the win, possibly in part due to their introduction to Big Ten officiating, USC’s fan base proved once again why more networks want to put this game in the national spotlight.
How many people watched USC vs Michigan?
As reported by Stewart Mandel of The Athletic, CBS drew 6.3 million viewers for last Saturday’s USC vs Michigan matchup. It is the most-watched college football game in Week 4 on CBS in the last 10 years.
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It’s not the first time this season that USC has drawn a massive TV audience. In the season opener against LSU, broadcasted on ABC, the neutral-site Trojans vs Tigers game averaged 9.2 million viewers.
While USC vs Michigan drew a smaller audience, the important context there is that the Trojans vs Tigers game was a standalone matchup on the college football schedule that night. The fact that USC vs Michigan had CBS’ highest TV ratings for a Week 4 game in a decade provides the proper context for Saturday’s historic audience size.
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The Trojans don’t play another ranked opponent until Oct. 12, when the Penn State Nittany Lions come to the LA Memorial Coliseum. If USC can win against Wisconsin and Minnesota in the next two weeks, with Penn State also staying undefeated, it’s possible the Nittany Lions vs Trojans game could also post strong ratings in a potential matchup of top-10 teams.
USC will also have another chance to generate massive college football TV ratings at the end of November when the Notre Dame Fighting Irish come to Southern California on Nov. 30. Last season’s USC vs Notre Dame game averaged 6.43 million viewers on NBC. However, the most-watched Trojans football game in 2023 was USC vs Colorado, per SportsMediaWatch.com, which averaged 7.2 million viewers on FOX.
