From your Gemini god. Sorry:
Non-playoff college football bowl games are increasingly unprofitable for networks due to plunging viewership, high production costs, and reduced advertising revenue caused by top players opting out. While some games still generate decent viewership, many lower-tier bowls suffer from poor attendance, low TV ratings, and diminished advertiser interest.
The amount of times you can be wrong in one thread is remarkable…
“Actually, that statement is largely false based on the data from the most recent 2025–26 bowl season.
While the "narrative" is that opt-outs and the expanded playoff would kill minor bowls, the actual numbers tell a different story. Far from being a "sinking ship," non-playoff bowl games just had their strongest viewership year in a decade.
The Reality Check: 2025–26 Data
The claim that viewership is "plunging" is contradicted by the 2025–26 season statistics:
• Surging Ratings: Across the 33 non-CFP bowl games on ESPN/ABC, viewership was up 13% year-over-year.
• A Decade High: The average of 3.1 million viewers per game was the highest average since the 2015–16 season.
• The "Pinstripe" Factor: The Pinstripe Bowl you were asking about actually set an all-time record with 7.6 million viewers (an 81% increase over the previous year).
Why the "Unprofitability" Narrative Persists
The idea that these games are failing usually comes from three specific areas that are true, but don't tell the whole story:
1. Attendance vs. TV: Lower-tier bowls (like the Myrtle Beach Bowl or Famous Idaho Potato Bowl) often have dismal "in-person" attendance. However, for a network like ESPN, the stadium crowd is irrelevant. They are "buying" 3.5 hours of live programming that still outperforms almost anything else they could air in that time slot.
2. The "Opt-Out" Myth: While stars like Arch Manning or top NFL prospects sitting out is a major talking point for fans, it hasn't translated to a ratings drop. Fans are proving they will watch "the jersey" and the brand of the school, regardless of who is starting at quarterback.
3. The "Transfer Portal" Chaos: This is a legitimate cost/logistics issue. Some teams (like Notre Dame in 2025) have actually declined bowl invites because too many players were in the portal to field a competitive team. This did hurt a few specific games (like the Birmingham Bowl, which struggled to find an opponent), but it hasn't affected the "prestige" mid-tier bowls like the Pinstripe or Pop-Tarts Bowl.
The Bottom Line
For a network, a bowl game that draws 2.5–3 million viewers is highly profitable. Compared to the cost of producing a scripted show or a documentary, "renting" a football game for $5M–$10M is a bargain that guarantees a top-tier audience for advertisers.”
footballscoop.com
Notre Dame should have made the field of 12…which was 4 byes plus 8 I believe.
, AI research makes dumb takes so much harder to get away with:
