Ohio State wasn’t the only winner yesterday in Columbus.
ESPN announced Sunday that Ohio State’s 30-27 double overtime victory over Michigan scored a total audience of 16.926 million viewers across all platforms and 16.647 million viewers on ABC. That figure tops Texas-Notre Dame as this season’s most-watched game by more than five million viewers. The 279,000 streaming viewers on WatchESPN also set a record for the three-year history of that platform.
It also stands as the network’s second-most watched regular-season game dating back to 1991. The only game to top it over that span? Ohio State’s 42-39 shootout victory over Michigan in 2006, when the teams came in ranked Nos. 1 and 2.
On the local front, Ohio State-Michigan scored a 43.6 rating in Columbus, a 36.8 rating in Dayton, Ohio, and a 30.8 rating in Detroit.
The SEC Championship usually finishes as the top-rated game of the regular-season but, given the stakes for Saturday’s tilt and the lack thereof for Alabama-Florida next week, go ahead and bet the farm Ohio State-Michigan will win this year’s prize.