This year’s Cotton Bowl Classic wasn’t exactly an offensive explosion, but the ratings were still outstanding.
ESPN announced Saturday that Missouri and Ohio State scored 9.6 million viewers, making it the most-watched non-semifinal Cotton Bowl of the College Football Playoff era. The game peaked with 10.7 million viewers.
Friday night’s game between Missouri and Ohio State was also the most-streamed college football game ever on ESPN+.
ESPN also reported that Friday night’s Cotton Bowl saw an 11 percent increase from the same window last year.
The 2023-24 New Year’s Six is off to a 🔥 start
The @CottonBowlGame featuring @MizzouFootball & @OhioStateFB scored 9.6M viewers, the most-watched non-Semi #GoodyearCottonBowl of the CFP era
🏈 Most-streamed CFB game ever on @ESPNPlus
🏈 Peaked with 10.7M viewers
🏈 +11% YOY pic.twitter.com/AD8ROafTkg— ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) December 30, 2023
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
It’s somewhat surprising that ESPN landed such positive ratings despite the score being 3-0 going into the fourth quarter.
Missouri buried Ohio State in the late stages of the game due to touchdowns from Cody Schrader and Luther Burden III.
Ohio State’s offense probably would’ve looked better if Devin Brown didn’t get hurt, but I guess we’ll never know.
We’ll see if ESPN can keep this momentum going with the Orange Bowl on Saturday afternoon.