Here are the final 2008-9 TV viewership numbers for the NCAA College Football Bowl Games (in the Football Bowl Subdivision). Big winners this year should come as no surprise, the BCS National Championship at 26.767 million, and the Rose Bowl at 20.603 million. The 3 bowls on December 27 (Meineke Car Care, Champs Sports, Emerald) did surprise me. I wouldn't have guessed that any December 27 bowls would outdraw two or three of the New Year's Day bowls. And while I'm about as far from a Notre Dame fan as you can find, it's impressive that they drew 4.4 million on Christmas Eve
ESPN has largely taken over the college football business, and starting in 2011 they will have the BCS Championship Game as well. The bowl craziness for ESPN makes a lot of business sense for them. Getting more than 2 million average viewers for any ESPN show (or 1 million for any ESPN2 show) is a big deal. Compare that to the results of this year's bowl games and you'll see why ESPN is such an enthusiastic bowl programmer.
NCAA College Football Bowl Game Ratings detail:
| Bowl Game | Teams/Score | Date/Time | Network | Viewership Live+SD (million) |
| EagleBank | Wake Forest 29, Navy 19 | Dec. 20, 11 a.m. | ESPN | 2.875 |
| New Mexico | Colorado State 40, Fresno State 35 | Dec. 20, 2:30 p.m. | ESPN | 3.432 |
| magicJack St. Petersburg | USF 41, Memphis 14 | Dec. 20, 4:30 p.m. | ESPN2 | 1.661 |
| Pioneer Las Vegas | Arizona 31, BYU 21 | Dec. 20, 8 p.m. | ESPN | 3.389 |
| R+L Carriers New Orleans | Southern Miss 30, Troy 27 (OT) | Dec. 21, 8:15 p.m. | ESPN | 1.115 |
| Poinsettia | TCU 17, Boise State 16 | Dec. 23, 8 p.m. | ESPN | 5.061 |
| Sheraton Hawaii | Notre Dame 49, Hawaii 21 | Dec. 24, 8 p.m. | ESPN | 4.413 |
| Motor City | Florida Atlantic 24, Central Mich. 21 | Dec. 26, 7:30 p.m. | ESPN | 3.437 |
| Meineke Car Care | West Virginia 31, North Carolina 30 | Dec. 27, 1 p.m. | ESPN | 5.881 |
| Champs Sports | Florida State 42, Wisconsin 13 | Dec. 27, 4:30 p.m. | ESPN | 7.059 |
| Emerald | California 24, Miami 17 | Dec. 27, 8 p.m. | ESPN | 6.508 |
| Independence | Louisiana Tech 17, Northern Illinois 10 | Dec. 28, 8:15 p.m. | ESPN | 1.207 |
| Papajohns.com | Rutgers 29, NC State 23 | Dec. 29, 3 p.m. | ESPN | 2.372 |
| Valero Alamo | Missouri 30, Northwestern 23 | Dec. 29, 8 p.m. | ESPN | 6.076 |
| Roady's Humanitarian | Maryland 42, Nevada 35 | Dec. 30, 4:30 p.m. | ESPN | 3.039 |
| Pacific Life Holiday | Oregon 42, Oklahoma State 31 | Dec. 30, 8 p.m. | ESPN | 6.220 |
| Texas | Rice 38, Western Michigan 14 | Dec. 30, 8 p.m. | NFLN | 0.186 |
| Brut Sun | Oregon State 3, Pittsburgh 0 | Dec. 31, 2 p.m. | CBS | 3.475 |
| Gaylord Hotels Music City | Vanderbilt 16, Boston College 14 | Dec. 31, 3:30 p.m. | ESPN | 3.646 |
| Insight | Kansas 42, Minnesota 21 | Dec. 31, 5:30 p.m. | NFLN | 0.731 |
| Chick-fil-A | LSU 38, Georgia Tech 3 | Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m. | ESPN | 5.635 |
| Bell Helicopter Armed Forces | Houston 34, Air Force 28 | Dec. 31, Noon | ESPN | 2.050 |
| Capital One | Georgia 24, Michigan State 12 | Jan. 1, 1 p.m. | ABC | 10.839 |
| Konica Minolta Gator | Nebraska 26, Clemson 21 | Jan. 1, 1 p.m. | CBS | 6.603 |
| Outback | Iowa 31, South Carolina 10 | Jan. 1, 11 a.m. | ESPN | 4.093 |
| Rose | USC 38, Penn State 24 | Jan. 1, 4:30 p.m. | ABC | 20.603 |
| FedEx Orange | Virginia Tech 20, Cincinnati 7 | Jan. 1, 8:30 p.m. | FOX | 9.319 |
| AT&T Cotton | Ole Miss 47, Texas Tech 34 | Jan. 2, 2 p.m. | FOX | 6.407 |
| AutoZone Liberty | Kentucky 25, East Carolina 19 | Jan. 2, 5 p.m. | ESPN | 3.607 |
| Allstate Sugar | Utah 31, Alabama 17 | Jan. 2, 8 p.m. | FOX | 13.369 |
| International | Connecticut 38, Buffalo 20 | Jan. 3, Noon | ESPN2 | 2.670 |
| Tostitos Fiesta | Texas 24, Ohio State 21 | Jan. 5, 8 p.m. | FOX | 17.056 |
| GMAC | Tulsa 45, Ball St. 13 | Jan. 6, 8 p.m. | ESPN | 2.831 |
| BCS National Championship | Florida 24, Oklahoma 14 | Jan. 8, 8 p.m. | FOX | 26.767 |
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2008-9 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
