Mike Rowley

Saturday morning, @CollegeGameDay set up in Provo. ​ The show reached 3 million viewers, according to ESPN. That was its biggest audience of the season and the third-biggest for any regular season episode it has ever aired. ​ Then they played the game. ​ The visitors came in at No. 2 in the nation. Golden helmets. A century of mystique. The kind of team you circle on the calendar and quietly hope you can hang with for four quarters. ​ The home team beat them by four, 28-24, and a tight end scored the go-ahead touchdown. ​ The country saw it. ESPN says ABC averaged 9.2 million viewers for the game, and the audience peaked at 13.2 million. ​ Ohio State and Indiana, with 10.4 million on FOX, was the only game that day to draw more. ​ It aired in ABC's Saturday Night Football window. ESPN's networks carried three of the week's four most-watched games, and this was the biggest of them. Alabama and Tennessee was next at 8.1 million. ​ It also topped last year's Big 12 title game (8.99 million) and the Pop-Tarts Bowl (8.7 million). By ESPN's count, it was the Big 12's most-watched regular season game since 2022. ​ The home team was @BYUfootball. The team they beat was Notre Dame, @NDFootball. ​ Walker Lyons was the tight end. The win gave BYU its largest TV audience of the modern era, passing last year's Big 12 title game against Texas Tech. ​ As a founder, I keep coming back to one thing. Nobody gives you the attention of 13 million people. ​ You cannot purchase it or request it. It builds for years where no one is looking, then arrives in a single Saturday night. ​ BYU got there by winning, week after week, until the country had a reason to tune in. ​ Put in the quiet work, even on the days nobody is filming it. The cameras show up later. ​ Now you see the whole picture. ​ @BYUfootball | @NDFootball | @CollegeGameDay | @ESPNPR ​ The chart of BYU's most-viewed games since 2011 and the research behind it are the work of @casey_lundquist of @BYUOnSI. Read his full story: nitter.gq/BYUOnSI/status/2112688… ​ Figures via @ESPNPR, reported by @jackson5payne of @Deseret and Mitch Harper of KSL Sports. ​ #BYU #GoCougs #HearHim ​ X: @ASCENDING_AZ | nowascend.ing