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re: The Athletic's Brand Valuations
Posted on 9/1/26 at 11:22 am to AUTiger789
Posted on 9/1/26 at 11:22 am to AUTiger789
To demonstrate just how weighted down Texas' numbers were by playing in the Big 12, here are their top rated regular season viewership games 2013-2025...
The first 17 ALL have either come (1) since joining the SEC, (2) against a non-conference opponent , or (3) against Oklahoma
1. 2025 Ohio State game (16.6M)
2. 2024 Georgia game (13.2M)
3. 2025 Texas A&M game (13.0M)
4. 2016 Notre Dame game (10.9M)
5. 2022 Alabama game (10.6M)
6. 2025 Georgia game (10.4M)
7. 2024 Texas A&M game (9.4M)
8. 2024 Michigan game (9.2M)
9. 2023 Alabama game (8.8M)
10. 2025 Oklahoma game (8.7M)
11. 2019 LSU game (8.6M)
12. 2023 Oklahoma game (7.9M)
13. 2024 Oklahoma game (7.6M)
14. 2019 Oklahoma game (7.3M)
15. 2021 Oklahoma game (5.9M)
16. 2025 Arkansas game (5.6M)
17. 2018 Oklahoma game (5.6M)
So of their 17 highest viewership regular season games since 2013....
*9 have come in just the two seasons since joining the SEC
*4 came while in the BIG 12 but playing against SEC opponents or Notre Dame
*4 came while in the BIG 12 against rival Oklahoma
This is why the networks were desperate to get both Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC... them playing Baylor, Iowa State, and Kansas was a waste of network TV space that resulted in low ratings. But when up against an SEC opponent, the ratings were massive.
From 2013-2023, Texas had just one regular season contest against a Big 12 team NOT named Oklahoma that got 5 million viewers: 2022 against TCU which got 5.03 million.... that game comes in at #18.
Crazy enough, their #s 19-25 highest rated games also have come since joining the SEC or were against Oklahoma or a non-conference opponent prior to joining.
Literally one game out of their 25 highest rated of the past 13 seasons was while in the Big 12 against a Big 12 opponent not named Oklahoma.
Thats unreal.
The first 17 ALL have either come (1) since joining the SEC, (2) against a non-conference opponent , or (3) against Oklahoma
1. 2025 Ohio State game (16.6M)
2. 2024 Georgia game (13.2M)
3. 2025 Texas A&M game (13.0M)
4. 2016 Notre Dame game (10.9M)
5. 2022 Alabama game (10.6M)
6. 2025 Georgia game (10.4M)
7. 2024 Texas A&M game (9.4M)
8. 2024 Michigan game (9.2M)
9. 2023 Alabama game (8.8M)
10. 2025 Oklahoma game (8.7M)
11. 2019 LSU game (8.6M)
12. 2023 Oklahoma game (7.9M)
13. 2024 Oklahoma game (7.6M)
14. 2019 Oklahoma game (7.3M)
15. 2021 Oklahoma game (5.9M)
16. 2025 Arkansas game (5.6M)
17. 2018 Oklahoma game (5.6M)
So of their 17 highest viewership regular season games since 2013....
*9 have come in just the two seasons since joining the SEC
*4 came while in the BIG 12 but playing against SEC opponents or Notre Dame
*4 came while in the BIG 12 against rival Oklahoma
This is why the networks were desperate to get both Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC... them playing Baylor, Iowa State, and Kansas was a waste of network TV space that resulted in low ratings. But when up against an SEC opponent, the ratings were massive.
From 2013-2023, Texas had just one regular season contest against a Big 12 team NOT named Oklahoma that got 5 million viewers: 2022 against TCU which got 5.03 million.... that game comes in at #18.
Crazy enough, their #s 19-25 highest rated games also have come since joining the SEC or were against Oklahoma or a non-conference opponent prior to joining.
Literally one game out of their 25 highest rated of the past 13 seasons was while in the Big 12 against a Big 12 opponent not named Oklahoma.
Thats unreal.
This post was edited on 9/1/26 at 11:30 am
1
Posted on 9/1/26 at 11:27 am to Tridentds
quote:
Not sure how they actually rank stuff but I travel a lot. In no particular order I see lots of Ohio St, Texas, Notre Dame wherever I go.
Right behind these 3 is USC, BAMA. Florida, OU, Michigan and A&M is behind this group.
Perhaps the fact you're an Aggie helps seeing Aggie apparel while traveling stick out in your brain. I travel a lot too and I agree with most of the teams you mention, but not really A&M.
I've seen Auburn apparel and received a million "War Eagles" throughout Europe and in places like NYC and Boston. I always see loads of Auburn hats and shirts when connecting in the Atlanta airport.... but I'm not going to pretend that Auburn is some national brand. A Top 15 college brand, sure, but not a national one. I feel like A&M is a big brand fire sure but not a national one either... not close really.
Posted on 9/1/26 at 11:39 am to AUTiger789
When I see statistics like "Viewership in 2M+ regular season games", it makes me think someone set out to goal seek a desired result. Total viewership or average and median viewership would be more informative, IMO.
Posted on 9/1/26 at 11:55 am to AUTiger789
I'm not disagreeing that Texas in the SEC >>> Texas in the Big 12 in terms of ratings, but to play devil's advocate a bit, Texas has been a lot better the past three seasons than they were in 2013-2022.
So it wasn't just that they were in the Big 12 (though that clearly didn't help), they were also just really shitty and no one wanted to watch them much. I'd argue that the non-conference games from back then (2016 ND, 2019 LSU, 2022 Bama) were high mostly because Texas hadn't imploded yet. I don't expect them to start sucking anytime soon but it'll be interesting to see what ratings a shitty Texas program in the SEC would get.
So it wasn't just that they were in the Big 12 (though that clearly didn't help), they were also just really shitty and no one wanted to watch them much. I'd argue that the non-conference games from back then (2016 ND, 2019 LSU, 2022 Bama) were high mostly because Texas hadn't imploded yet. I don't expect them to start sucking anytime soon but it'll be interesting to see what ratings a shitty Texas program in the SEC would get.
Posted on 9/1/26 at 12:05 pm to AUTiger789
The B1G continues to do more with less while the SEC squanders a fortune.
Posted on 9/1/26 at 12:48 pm to wdhalgren
quote:
Total viewership or average and median viewership would be more informative, IMO.
Here's the issue. Missouri plays Arkansas-Pine Bluff on SEC Network this week. Had that game been aired on ESPNU instead, it would appear on a metered network and likely report viewership around 200,000 total viewers... an absolute killer to a team's average viewership total.
But because that game appears on SEC Network, it's not metered therefor no one will ever know how many viewers may or may not tune in... and it stays out of Missouri's viewership totals and keeps it from skewing downward.
Why should some lowly rated games count and others not? It creates very skewed results.
If all networks reported viewership numbers, then yes adding up all games would be the best method. But they don't. Some do, some don't.
By throwing all such games on ESPU, FS1, etc out entirely, it actually protects the data from being skewed.
Basically any game airing on a network or ESPN is almost always going to hit that 2 million mark, while the vast majority of games on FS1, CBSSports, ESPNU, etc never hit that threshold. It's best just not to count those games at all because they skew the data in a very big way that's not representative of reality.
This post was edited on 9/1/26 at 12:51 pm
Posted on 9/1/26 at 1:03 pm to AUTiger789
I understand the problem, but throwing out the minor games of a smaller brand team skews their aggregates upwards. The fact is that the big brands are much more likely to play on the big media because of their high value; the less important brands play more often on small media. How many and how often viewers get counted has a direct correlation to the brand value that you're assessing. Even the total number of 2M+ games is suspect, because it might be capturing the value of the opposition brands. You'd need to capture the multiple low viewership games to offset that effect.
I just think it's more accurate to include all data. If nobody cares enough to accurately count the viewers for some games then, even with incomplete raw data, the brand is accurately assessed as less valuable.
I just think it's more accurate to include all data. If nobody cares enough to accurately count the viewers for some games then, even with incomplete raw data, the brand is accurately assessed as less valuable.
This post was edited on 9/1/26 at 1:21 pm
Posted on 9/1/26 at 1:26 pm to AUTiger789
It Varys from year to year, LSU has been as high as 3rd but this looks about right
Posted on 9/1/26 at 2:31 pm to Yokelhoma
quote:
but to play devil's advocate a bit, Texas has been a lot better the past three seasons than they were in 2013-2022.
You are correct... I'm sure Texas struggling from 2013-2022 had something to do with it. However, the numbers aren't too different for Oklahoma
Of Oklahoma's 31 largest regular season viewership games since 2013:
*12 were in the previous two seasons since joining the SEC (including the Top 3 and 9 of the Top 15g
*7 were against rival Texas while in the Big 12
*5 were against rival Oklahoma State while in the Big 12
*4 were against non-conference opponents back when they were in the Big 12
Only 3 of Oklahoma's 31 best regular season television games of the past 13 seasons occurred against Big 12 opponents not named Texas or Oklahoma State... those games: #10 2019 Baylor... #17 2015 Baylor... and #21 2018 West Virginia.
OU has also benefited massively since moving to the SEC.
Posted on 9/1/26 at 2:59 pm to wdhalgren
quote:
throwing out the minor games of a smaller brand team skews their aggregates upwards.
It's not really about large schools vs small schools. Georgia played Kentucky on ESPNU in 2013 and drew just 950,000 viewers. Again, had that game been on SEC Network instead, it just wouldn't count. Why should some games that by nature will have low viewership count while Vandy can play every week on SEC Network and not have to count those low viewership totals?
quote:
The fact is that the big brands are much more likely to play on the big media because of their high value
Exactly. Which is why looking at total games that hit at least 2 million viewers is a major component.... as I originally posted. Alabama has 121 such games since 2013 and Vandy has just 17. That's a big difference. And it very accurately paints the picture of those two brands.
quote:
Even the total number of 2M+ games is suspect, because it might be capturing the value of the opposition brands.
Yes, absolutely. Just as game time, date of the game, what other games are on TV that day, etc also have an impact. You can't control those factors. That's why you just take a wide time frame of data to analyze and why it's important to throw out the noise that skews things outside the norm.
quote:
I just think it's more accurate to include all data.
Great. If you can get the SEC Network to start metering games and publishing the viewership totals, I'd love nothing more than to include all games. But that's not possible because not all games are tracked.
quote:
If nobody cares enough to accurately count the viewers for some games then, even with incomplete raw data, the brand is accurately assessed as less valuable.
Once again... this is not the issue. The issue is not that Missouri's game against Arkansas Pine Bluff isn't going to be counted. The issue is that they don't have to count that inevitably low viewership total while Mississippi State's game against Louisiana-Monroe the same weekend will produce and equally low viewership total but because it's on ESPNU, it will produce an actual number. Both are going to get less than 200k viewers. The problem is why count one but not the other? In a perfect world we'd count both, but if SECN isn't going to produce totals we can't. It's reckless to count one but not the other.
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