HOUSTON – This past weekend, as Week Zero collegiate football kicked off, the 2025 Cricket MEAC/SWAC Challenge Kick-Off had favorable viewership numbers. This year, the annual HBCU football event competed against several collegiate football games on Saturday.
A network source noted that the numbers were “still substantial” considering the variety of games that were not in the same broadcasting window when the MEAC/SWAC Challenge reached up to 1.4 million viewers in 2024.
Fox 54’s sports director, Mo Carter, released the following viewership numbers of the events:
- MEAC/SWAC Challenge: 867,000 (ABC)
- Stanford – Hawaii: 1.3 Million (CBS)
- Fresno St – Kansas: 1.6 Million (FOX)
- Kansas St – Iowa St: 4.01 Million (ESPN) – peaked at 4.7 Million
- Stanford – Hawaii: 1.3 Million (CBS)
The MEAC/SWAC Challenge held its own, coming in third among college football events in prime-time telecasts in total viewership. The additions of the NASCAR Cup Series Race (3.297 million) and the NFL Preseason Game between Jacksonville and Miami (1.62 million) gave the HBCU football event a fifth-place spot among the prime-time broadcasts.
MEAC/SWAC Kick-Off Households Watching
Programming Insider reported the following demographics for the MEAC/SWAC Kick-Off between North Carolina Central vs. Southern:
- 0.867 million viewers
- 0.50/2 HH rating/share (Range: 0.623-0.635 million households)
- 0.13/2 A18-49 rating/share (Range: 0.168-0.181 million adults 18-49; 0.12/2 F18-49, 0.14/2 M18-49)
- 0.17/2 A25-54 rating/share (Range: 0.204-0.216 million adults 25-54; 0.16/2 F25-54, 0.18/2 M25-54)
During most of the prime time slot, the MEAC/SWAC Kick-Off was either in the 3rd or 4th position compared to other prime time sports events on Saturday, Aug. 23…