Most watched college football games from Week 8 revealed
Week 8 of college football led to plenty of surprises, including which games received the most eyeballs. The Athletic’s Stewart Mandel tweeted a list of the most watched games from this past week, and the matchup between Clemson and Syracuse led the way with an estimated 4.7 million viewers.
According to Mandel, that marked the first time since the 2020 ACC title game that the most watched game did not include an SEC or Big Ten team. In fact, neither conference was represented in the second-most watched game either as a Big 12 contest between Texas and Oklahoma State saw 4.5 million tune in.
Ohio State–Iowa ended up being the Big Ten’s biggest game of the week with 4.4 million viewers, while Ole Miss–LSU led the way for the SEC with 3.9 million. That was good to rank third and fourth among the most watched games for Week 8 of college football.
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It makes sense that Clemson-Syracuse garnered a lot of attention, as it was the only game between two previously undefeated teams this week. The game also included a quarterback controversy as Tigers starter DJ Uiagalelei was replaced by true freshman Cade Klubnik in the third quarter. That led to 17 unanswered points from Clemson as it came back to win 27-21.
Mandel also noted that another Big 12 game, Kansas State–TCU, saw an unusually high number of viewers for a FOX Sports 1 game with 1.5 million. The Horned Frogs and Wildcats were the last two remaining unbeatens in conference play, and TCU earned a 38-28 victory behind 153 yards rushing and two touchdowns from Kendre Miller.
UCLA–Oregon, which was the destination for ESPN’s College GameDay, came in seventh on the list with 3.3 million viewers. The Ducks handed the Bruins their first loss of the season as quarterback Bo Nix threw for 283 yards and five touchdowns.