The SEC is dominating the Big Ten in ratings — despite on-field parity

[MisterGopher]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6859564/2025/12/04/sec-big-ten-tv-ratings/

On the field, the Big Ten has caught up to the SEC. In fact, it’s winning: The past two national champions, the top two teams in the current College Football Playoff rankings, three of the top five. The football people are smiling.

But the television partners are frowning. And the SEC and its one television partner are smiling.

The SEC is routing the Big Ten in college football ratings. That was the case last year, when at least one SEC team played in four of the top six-rated games of the regular season, and 18 of the top 25. And it’s grown this year: An SEC team has played in nine of the top 10, and 22 of the top 25 highest-rated games. The vast majority of those are SEC versus SEC games.

The Big Ten, meanwhile, has just three of its conference games on that list, and its only two appearances in the top 10 came in games against SEC teams.

So what happened? Some of the reasons are competitive. Some are about their television deals. We dig into them, with our SEC writer (Seth Emerson) and Big Ten writer (Scott Dochterman) each providing perspective:

They go into each of the following:

• Conference depth
• Geography and rivalries matter
• One network vs. many
• The ESPN factor
• Scheduling and sequence

 

[goldengophers]

N F L

 

[MaxyJR1]

Rivalries and Geography are big issues. And the rankings having 9 teams from SEC each week markets.

 

[Schnauzer]

When there is parity on the field but one of the two conferences still gets to have a bunch of its teams ranked, they get to advertise “big” games. Another reason why people that say “rankings don’t matter” are wrong.

 

[Some guy]

Rivalries and Geography are big issues. And the rankings having 9 teams from SEC each week markets.

Bigger issue is that none of the comparable big ten team play each other.

Indiana played 2 of the top 6
Ohio state played 1 of the top 6
Oregon played 3 of the top 6
USC played 3 of the top 6
Michigan played 2 of the top 6
Iowa played 3 of the top 6

So of this whole league there were only 7 games where two teams in the top 6 played each other.
5 of those 7 games had either Michigan or Iowa.
3 of the top 6 in the big ten had a non conference loss.
In the SEC 2 of the top 10 had a non conference loss.


Only 2 games all regular season between the top 4 teams.

The same problem exists in the middle 6.

So there aren’t big ranked matchups
There aren’t close games

A million blowouts and standings that don’t tell you much

 

[swede2]

ESPN is still king in television sports and southerners still like CFB more than northerners.

 

[Ope3]

Rutgers vs Washington is not a big draw to begin with for TV viewers. Speaks to geography and time zone issues.

Having it as a Friday kickoff at 9pm for Scarlet Knights viewers and 6pm for Huskies audience at the same time the Mariners were playing an ALDS elimination game was also not the best ratings strategy.