Alamo Bowl Earns Record Rating

The national television broadcast of the 2005 MasterCard Alamo Bowl earned a 5.41 rating making it the most-watched college football game in ESPN history.

The rating translates into 4,875,554 households and 7.8 million viewers when considering ESPN’s household base and a 1.6 viewers-per-viewing household factor.

The mark exceeds ESPN’s most-watched regular season college football game (a Florida State vs. Miami match-up with 4,486,000 households and 7.17 million viewers on October 8, 1994) and their most-watched bowl game (the 1998 Holiday Bowl between Nebraska and Arizona with 4,556,937 households and 7.29 million viewers).

Since 1995, the Alamo Bowl has produced seven of the Top 20 most-watched bowl games in ESPN history. The Alamo Bowl’s previous most-watched contest was the 1995 game featuring Texas A&M’s 22-20 defeat of Michigan. While this game earned a 6.31 rating (ranked #2 on ESPN’s all-time bowl ratings list), it ranks #7 on ESPN’s most-watched bowl game list based on ESPN’s household base at the time as it reached 4,256,513 households and 6.81 million viewers.

The 2005 MasterCard Alamo Bowl, which featured Nebraska’s 32-28 come-from-behind victory over Michigan, was played at the Alamodome in San Antonio on Wednesday, December 28.

“The record viewership is attributed to the fan following of these two storied football programs and the competitiveness of the game which is sure to be an instant classic,” said Derrick Fox, President/CEO of the MasterCard Alamo Bowl. “ESPN’s four-hour telecast provided tremendous exposure for the City of San Antonio, MasterCard and our other partners. It’s gratifying that fans across the nation tuned into this game making it the most-watched college football game in ESPN history.”