Texas Defeats Ohio State 24-23; Game Draws Nearly 14M Viewers, Most-Watched Week 2 Ever

Texas erased a 20-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat Ohio State 24-23 on Saturday night in Austin, delivering record-breaking viewership for the rivalry. ABC averaged nearly 14 million viewers, with viewership peaking at 16.4 million, according to Front Office Sports. The game marks the most-watched Week 2 college football game on record and the most-watched regular-season matchup on an ESPN platform in a decade. The result continues a streak of marquee viewership for the Texas-Ohio State rivalry. Last year's game in Columbus on Fox drew 16.6 million viewers, marking the most-watched Week 1 college football game on record, with Ohio State winning 14-7 and viewership peaking at 18.6 million. That game featured Arch Manning's biggest start in his young collegiate career, per Front Office Sports. The turnaround came after Ohio State had built and appeared to control the game in the early going. Other Week 2 college football broadcasts drew significantly lower viewership. Fox's coverage of Michigan's 17-10 win over Oklahoma in Ann Arbor averaged 8.2 million viewers, up more than 31 percent compared to Fox's Big Noon Saturday game average in 2025, according to Front Office Sports, though down from the 9.7 million viewers ABC drew for last year's matchup in Norman. Week 1 viewership earlier this month showed Notre Dame's 41-13 victory over Wisconsin as the most-watched game of the season's opening weekend, drawing 8.1 million viewers on NBC. LSU's 51-10 blowout win over Clemson averaged 5.8 million viewers, according to Front Office Sports. That game featured Lane Kiffin's LSU debut and was delayed by two hours due to weather. Last year's LSU-Clemson matchup in South Carolina was one of three Week 1 games on ABC to draw more than 10 million viewers. ABC broadcasts a primetime matchup on Saturday featuring No. 7 LSU at No. 8 Ole Miss, as Kiffin returns to Oxford for his first game as head coach of LSU.