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IU football’s national championship win was the second most-watched title game of CFP era

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Photos from IU football's 27-21 win against Miami (FL) in the CFP national championship game.

The Nielsen ratings are out for IU football’s CFP national championship win against Miami (FL) on Monday night and the Hoosiers drew a significant audience for ESPN.

The 27-21 win for the Hoosiers was the second most-watched college football game since January 2015, according to a release from ESPN this afternoon.

With 30.1 million viewers, the IU-Miami matchup was the second most-watched championship game in the College Football Playoff era. Only Oregon-Ohio State drew more (33.9 million) back on January 12, 2015.

The ratings for the title game were up 36 percent year over year from last year’s final between Ohio State and Notre Dame.

According to ESPN, Monday’s game was the most-viewed non-NFL sports telecast since Game 7 of the 2016 World Series, the fourth-most-watched college football game in the past 30 years and the network’s eighth-most-watched production ever.

Indiana’s playoff quarterfinal win against Alabama in the Rose Bowl drew 23.9 million viewers, the highest rating of the four quarterfinal games.

And IU’s playoff semifinal win against Oregon in the Peach Bowl drew 18 million viewers, more than the 15.8 million who tuned in to Miami vs. Ole Miss.

Overall, viewership for this year’s College Football Playoff was up four percent year over year.

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