Remember that time Notre Dame was going to stick it to ESPN and the rest of college football by taking their ball, literally and figuratively, and opting out of playing in a bowl game. They thought they were snubbed by the College Football Playoff committee this year, despite their best games being losses, and elected to sit out the postseason. Well, everything that has transpired since then has just made the Fighting Irish look even worse than they already did.
For one, the Miami Hurricanes, the team that Notre Dame was supposedly supposed to get in over, despite Notre Dame losing a head-to-head game vs. Miami early in the season, has won two College Football Playoff games, against Texas A&M and Ohio State. And they’ve done with it an absolutely dominant defense that has shut down two of the best teams in the SEC and Big Ten.
Bowl Games Get Huge Viewership Without Notre Dame
And then came the news that the Pop-Tarts Bowl had 8.7 million viewers between BYU and Georgia Tech. The Pop-Tarts Bowl also outperformed every non-CFP game this season and was the highest viewership for a non-CFP or New Year’s 6 bowl since 2019–2020, according to ESPN.
Here’s the graphic shared by ESPN.
Despite even casual fans saying the bowl games don’t matter, the viewership data certainly tells a different story. It helps that college football plays many of these games when there isn’t much competition for the sport and many folks are off from work and looking for live sports to watch.
But regardless, these numbers are quite impressive. And considering Notre Dame thought it was going to take down the non-CFP bowl season with its omission, and specifically the Pop-Tarts Bowl, where they were expected to go and play BYU, the bowl game did a massive number without the Irish. Go figure.
In fact, Wait, more people tuned into the “meaningless” Pop-Tarts Bowl than any Saturday Notre Dame game this season. The only Notre Dame game that drew a higher viewership than the Pop-Tarts Bowl (8.7 million) was their Labor Day night game against Miami (10.7 million).
So if you see a Notre Dame staffer or fan in the near future, definitely don’t take financial advice from them or go to a casino with them any time soon, they’re on a historically bad run of predictions. But a polite tap on the head might work just fine!
