The following article ” More than 20 million tune in for Ohio State-Texas Cotton Bowl ” originally appeared on Sports Media Watch .
After a relatively soft outing for the first semifinal of the expanded College Football Playoff, the Ohio State-Texas Cotton Bowl delivered a considerably stronger audience Friday night.
Friday’s Ohio State-Texas CFP semifinal at the Cotton Bowl averaged a 10.0 rating and 20.6 million viewers across ESPN (9.5, 19.6M), ESPN2 (0.44, 819K) and ESPNU (0.11, 218K), marking the ninth-largest audience for a CFP semifinal (22 total; keep in mind several aired before Nielsen began including out-of-home viewing in its estimates). The Buckeyes have played in five of the top ten, more than any other program…