Wake bowl beat Penn State in viewership
The next time a coach says he's excited about going to the Meineke Car Care Bowl, don't laugh. There's something to be said for an unopposed time slot.
The Wake Forest-UConn game, played on a Saturday afternoon without direct football competition, drew 3,607,429 viewers, according to estimates from Nielsen Media. In the process, it attracted 40 percent more eyeballs than JoePa's Nittany Lions got for their Alamo Bowl game with Texas A&M.
The Deacs and Huskies doubled the audience of Alabama and Colorado in the Independence Bowl (1.8 million) and surpassed two New Year's Day games, the Outback between Tennessee and Wisconsin (3.26 million) and the Gator featuring Virginia and Texas Tech (2.96 million).
If you were looking for a big number on Jan. 1, you didn't want to play early in the afternoon. The Outback started at 11 a.m., the Cotton went off at 11:30 -- or a bright and early 10:30 local time in Dallas -- and the Gator and Capital One started at 1. Given a choice, a whopping 10 million viewers selected Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and his Florida Gators against outgoing Michigan coach Lloyd Carr and his band of Michigan Wolverines in the Capital One.
Check out the chart here.