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B3Vandy

B3Vandy

Senior
Jun 9, 2001
2,710
944
102
This is hard to believe but I just looked it up. "Georgia's matchup Saturday over the formerly No. 1 ranked Tennessee Volunteers was seen by 13.3 million people according to CBSsports, the most watched football game of the season. In comparison, the NU vs OK 1971 Game-With a kickoff shortly before 3 pm EST, ABC-TV broadcast the game nationally to an estimated 55 million viewers (at the time the largest television audience ever for a college football game)."
 
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timnsun

All-American
Jan 25, 2008
13,815
7,519
3
B3Vandy said:
This is hard to believe but I just looked it up. "Georgia's matchup Saturday over the formerly No. 1 ranked Tennessee Volunteers was seen by 13.3 million people according to CBSsports, the most watched football game of the season. In comparison, the NU vs OK 1971 Game-With a kickoff shortly before 3 pm EST, ABC-TV broadcast the game nationally to an estimated 55 million viewers (at the time the largest television audience ever for a college football game)."
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Regional television makes it almost certain that we will never see numbers like NU/OU 1971 anymore.
 
G

GeorgeFlippin

Heisman
May 29, 2001
38,548
35,531
113
That game in 71 had more hype and anticipation, an incredible build up weeks before being played.
 
bigboxes

bigboxes

All-American
Sep 4, 2004
46,208
6,740
113
timnsun said:
Regional television makes it almost certain that we will never see numbers like NU/OU 1971 anymore.
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Being on Thanksgiving 1971, they had to compete with a couple of NFL games. Impressive numbers, regardless.
 
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TheHuskerFreak

Sophomore
Dec 18, 2020
1,141
188
0
Far fewer options in 1971 for sports or entertainment. Only a few games you could watch on TV at all. Same with shows. Pretty much all shows had higher ratings. All in the family was getting 60 million viewers. The highest watched current show is NCIS which gets around 11 million. It was a different time
 
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HominidHusker

Senior
Jun 25, 2018
3,727
743
0
I was one of 13.3 million, and what stood out was not just superior athletes to what we have, but more football smarts and competence. Both teams just looked better prepared and aware of how to maximize their potential.

The one exception was Tennessee with a number of false start issues.
 
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rgrachek

All-American
Dec 2, 2004
17,954
7,190
78
B3Vandy said:
This is hard to believe but I just looked it up. "Georgia's matchup Saturday over the formerly No. 1 ranked Tennessee Volunteers was seen by 13.3 million people according to CBSsports, the most watched football game of the season. In comparison, the NU vs OK 1971 Game-With a kickoff shortly before 3 pm EST, ABC-TV broadcast the game nationally to an estimated 55 million viewers (at the time the largest television audience ever for a college football game)."
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Don't you think that the fact that the 1971 NU OU game was the only one on TV that day has something to do with it, along with the fact that it was a Holiday day and almost everyone was home? There were 9 other games on TV at the time of the Georgia game last Saturday and people have 800 channels on their TVs now.
 
Redscarlet

Redscarlet

Heisman
Jun 17, 2001
32,798
10,729
113
rgrachek said:
Don't you think that the fact that the 1971 NU OU game was the only one on TV that day has something to do with it, along with the fact that it was a Holiday day and almost everyone was home? There were 9 other games on TV at the time of the Georgia game last Saturday and people have 800 channels on their TVs now.
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That’s true but the build up for the NU/ OU game started after OU whipped texass on the 9th of October and ABC built it as the game of the century every week till it kicked off.
Only 2 Pro games played on Thanksgiving just like now, but make no mistake College Football back in those days were more popular than the NFL..
 
bigboxes

bigboxes

All-American
Sep 4, 2004
46,208
6,740
113
scarletred said:
That’s true but the build up for the NU/ OU game started after OU whipped texass on the 9th of October and ABC built it as the game of the century every week till it kicked off.
Only 2 Pro games played on Thanksgiving just like now, but make no mistake College Football back in those days were more popular than the NFL..
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They play 3 NFL games nowadays. I sure wish I could have watched that game live. I had to wait until 1987 for Game of the Century II. What a let down. I drove all the way from DFW just to watch OU shut down Steve Taylor. Man...
 
Y

Yantzeee

Redshirt
Nov 25, 2021
1,897
0
0
Compare college viewership to NFL viewership and see what people are watching and it’s not even close

The NFL has become light years more popular then College… College did it to themselves for allowing Saban to cheat for so many years and now Kirby too. And yes they cheated.

People like an underdog. People don’t like the same 4 teams in the playoff every year. Rams and Bucs (the last two Super Bowl winners) were wildcard and underdogs to win the SB. Hell Cincy was the best Cinderella in sports in many years.

there’s just a ton of people like me now that are like, I can justify one day of all day football watching, and I ain’t picking to do that on Saturdays anymore. I do it on Sundays. NFL is just more exciting. Still love Huskers above all but could give a rats *** about the rest.

College Game day jumped the shark when they decided to be on a campus every week. should have kept the campus Game days for extremely special games
 
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rgrachek

All-American
Dec 2, 2004
17,954
7,190
78
scarletred said:
That’s true but the build up for the NU/ OU game started after OU whipped texass on the 9th of October and ABC built it as the game of the century every week till it kicked off.
Only 2 Pro games played on Thanksgiving just like now, but make no mistake College Football back in those days were more popular than the NFL..
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I really don't know how you can say that College Football in that day was more popular than the NFL. On most Saturdays, there was only ONE college football game on TV. At most there would be 2 on special days. New Years day was a football bonanza. 4 games in one day on TV! The money in college football adjusted for inflation was 1/50th of what it is now. At that time, college football was only played on Saturday, except for Bowl Games.

At that time, you could watch 2 NFL games every Sunday and another on Monday night. Almost all of the games were available in the local markets on TV, so the millions of fans in the big cities could watch their team every week. The Superbowl was becoming the biggest event in sports.

College Football's popularity rocketed after the 1984 OU vs. NCAA ruling, allowing essentially for unlimited live games every Saturday, then on other days too.
 
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Rcnut223

Sophomore
Apr 22, 2004
1,683
103
63
B3Vandy said:
This is hard to believe but I just looked it up. "Georgia's matchup Saturday over the formerly No. 1 ranked Tennessee Volunteers was seen by 13.3 million people according to CBSsports, the most watched football game of the season. In comparison, the NU vs OK 1971 Game-With a kickoff shortly before 3 pm EST, ABC-TV broadcast the game nationally to an estimated 55 million viewers (at the time the largest television audience ever for a college football game)."
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It shows the level of interest in college football today. Watch any random game on tv today and you will often see the attendance is very low , lots of empty seats . Only the premier teams have a full or nearly full stadium.

Another factor is there are way more games on tv today than in 1971, heck you couldn’t watch any team every week. Radio was how you listened to majority of the games.
 
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RedCap_rivals330392

Heisman
Sep 29, 2001
75,439
12,977
0
rcnut223 said:
It shows the level of interest in college football today. Watch any random game on tv today and you will often see the attendance is very low , lots of empty seats . Only the premier teams have a full or nearly full stadium.

Another factor is there are way more games on tv today than in 1971, heck you couldn’t watch any team every week. Radio was how you listened to majority of the games.
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It's not just more college football on TV, it's all sports. I'm sure the total audience probably is greater but it's spread across many more choices.
 
Redscarlet

Redscarlet

Heisman
Jun 17, 2001
32,798
10,729
113
bigboxes said:
They play 3 NFL games nowadays. I sure wish I could have watched that game live. I had to wait until 1987 for Game of the Century II. What a let down. I drove all the way from DFW just to watch OU shut down Steve Taylor. Man...
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The 3rd is on Cable which they didn’t have back in the 70’s..
 
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