Cowherd: ESPN’s National Championship Ratings Are Down From Last Year — Bama to Blame

On Tuesday’s “The Herd” on Fox Sports 1, host Colin Cowherd reacted Tuesday to the reported 15.8 overnight rating of Monday’s College Football Playoff championship game between Clemson and Alabama on ESPN, which is down 15 percent from last year’s championship game between Oregon and Ohio State.

The former ESPN radio host explained his old employer, who experienced an 8 percent drop in its viewership in 2015, elected to not run commercials during the final 45 minutes of the championship game Monday night in order salvage .3 in the ratings because people are “bored” with Alabama. The move ultimately cost ESPN “millions of dollars,” according to Cowherd.

“Don’t be offended, Alabama. This is not my opinion, it’s the country’s. People are bored with Alabama. The South has become so dominating in college football, people are bored with it,” Cowherd said.

“It’s geeky, but there’s a little trick companies do,” he continued. “ESPN did it last night. The last 45 minutes, 11:45 to 12:30 a.m., ESPN didn’t run a commercial. Now, they lost tens of millions of dollars doing that, but that told you, they had to make that decision before the game started. They made a decision last night, knowing they were in trouble to not run a commercial to help their ratings. It helped it 0.3 of a point. It was not worth the revenue they gave up. It wasn’t a great decision.”