Horns247 Board

Oh, come on. We agree on a lot of things, but that's the excuse you want to offer here?

Like it or not, the Big 12 has teams in only 5 states--Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, and WV. Total population is about 37 million.

The Big Ten's states encompass a population of 69 million.

I'm not saying there isn't a bigger reach than just the home states or that the home states are exclusive territory, but those are the sort of numbers the Big 12 has to understand.

I think enough do, particularly early in the season, to make for numbers like that.

If I had a choice of Tech vs. Baylor or Georgia vs. Auburn, I'm watching the Big 12 game with an occasional flip over to see what's happening elsewhere.

By the way, it looks like I was amending my first response while you were replying to it. I don't think there is some kind of absolute congruity between state boundaries and fan interest, but I do think it is probably a strong influence in determining audience size. There may also be some markets Fox doesn't reach that ABC does, but I don't have any information on that.

Most people don't understand anything I post...............

4.1 million for Wisconsin/Nebraska

3.57 million for Texas

I think I'd go shoot baskets with my son.

Just me, but I think nearly every Big 10 fan watched Neb-Wisconsin, or maybe tuned into the Alabama game.

Thanks! I think those numbers arent too bad considering we were on FOX.

The Big Ten has always had the most TV sets, and yes, conferences like the B10, SEC and PAC12 have more fans who are more conference oriented than the Big 12, especially since 25% of the old Big 8 left the Big 12..

I think there is truth on all sides. Fox is not ABC/ESPN in terms of college football brand awareness. Fox is really just starting to build a credible name in the college game. Their coverage of college games a couple years ago was a joke. So there is some inherent advantage being on ABC versus Fox. With that said, while the Big 12 has outstanding football it certainly would be around fourth/fifth place among the major conferences in population and brand support nationwide. When you are outside of the Big 12 states the coverage of Big 12 games is mediocre at best. That's not the case for the SEC, Big 10 and even ACC/Pac 12. Texas and OU are outliers and when those programs are top ranked they are some of the most attractive TV programming. The rest of the conference, not so much. Until WVU, Kansas State or Oklahoma State win a national title (or consistently win big games over many years) the conference will be viewed as two traditional powers and 8 others. The Big 12 can help itself by (1) having a strong conference with four or so very good teams year-in and year-out or (2) by adding some impressive conference members - I'm talking Florida State and Clemson - to expand the profile. Just my take of course.

Fox will be ecstatic compared to KSU-OU a week ago.

A different source is saying Texas @ OSU beat Wiscy @ Neb.

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For the first time, college football on FOX topped ABC’s “Saturday Night Football” head-to-head.

Saturday’s Texas/Oklahoma State college football game drew a 2.8 overnight rating on FOX, up 65% from Kansas State/Oklahoma last week (1.7), and up 12% from USC/Stanford two weeks ago (2.5).

The 2.8 is the highest overnight yet for college football coverage on FOX. The previous high was for the previously mentioned USC/Stanford game.

Texas/Oklahoma State topped ABC’s Wisconsin/Nebraska “Saturday Night Football” game head-to-head (2.6), marking the first time that FOX has topped ABC.

Still, ABC earned the top college football overnight of the weekend for the afternoon Ohio State/Michigan State game (3.6)