Washington-Oregon draws 9.2 million viewers, most watched Pac-12 Championship Game
Friday’s Pac-12 Championship Game featuring the Washington Huskies and the Oregon Ducks drew 9.2 million viewers on ABC, according to ESPN. The final edition of the Pac-12 Championship Game was the most-watched title game in the conference’s history.
The game peaked in viewership between 11:30 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. ET, which drew 11.1 million viewers. The previous viewership record for the Pac-12 Championship Game was in 2014 when Oregon and Arizona drew six million viewers.
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Washington defeated Oregon 34-31 on Friday to claim the 2023 Pac-12 championship. The win is expected to ensure a spot in the College Football Playoff, which will be announced Sunday. The Huskies (13-0) have now beaten the Ducks (11-2) twice after winning the earlier matchup 36-33 on Oct. 14 in Seattle.
The Big Ten approved Oregon and Washington as new members on Aug. 4, with competition to begin in 2024-25. The additions came barely 14 months after the Big Ten welcomed Pac-12 flagship programs USC and UCLA as new members beginning Aug. 2, 2024. The Pac-12’s inability to secure a quality linear media rights contract coupled with the Big 12’s media rights agreement, reached last fall, led many Pac-12 programs to consider leaving the historic conference.
What could’ve been with the Pac-12
What a depressing coda for Pac-12 Football. The viewership confirms the absolute botched job by the Pac-12 conference presidents, past and present, to fail to land a media rights deal to continue the famed conference. Think of how the season started — Colorado putting up record viewership numbers. Then the season ends with this excellent rating.
Per Sports Media Watch: Heading into Saturday’s games, four of the 18 most-watched games so far this season were Pac-12 conference games, tying the SEC as the most of any conference (The SEC title game will no doubt give the SEC five). The viewership number for Washington-Oregon topped the most-watched Pac-12 title game by more than three million.
Did the viewership number benefit from a nostalgia play? Likely, yes. And we were talking about two top-5 teams. But you can’t help but come away from the game, yet again, thinking what might have (and should have) been. — Richard Deitsch, sports media writer
Required reading
(Photo: Kirby Lee / USA Today)
