Sunday’s late afternoon dramatic comeback win by the UCF Knights over then-No. 18 South Florida Bulls on ESPNU was watched by 124,000 viewers nationally according to SportsTVRatings.com.
It was the most-watched live sporting event on ESPNU that day beating the college lacrosse game between Syracuse and Duke (119,000) and college baseball game between Texas A&M and Arkansas (85,000).
The Knights 5-3 win in nine innings over the Bulls also had more viewers then college baseball’s Dallas Baptist vs. Bradley telecast on Saturday night (64,000) and Tennessee vs. Missouri (43,000).
Overall UCF-USF was the fifth most-watched college softball game of the season that has aired on ESPNU and 15th most-watched game of the season according to Softball’s In The Circle blog.
UCF-USF topped any ACC Conference Softball game televised this season and it is the most watched non-Power 5 college softball or baseball game of the season.
The game was also being watched in Orlando.
Orlando was 10th nationally in local market rankings in watching the game with a 0.2 rating according to ESPNPR. It was the second highest rated college softball game of the season watched in Orlando behind only the Alabama-Florida telecast on April 2. Keep in mind the Alabama-Florida game was on ESPN2, which is in 81 percent of homes in the United States compared to ESPNU which is only in 63 percent of homes.
Despite being in fewer homes, UCF-USF had more viewers than the Florida-LSU game on March 26 which had 0.15. Keep in mind these numbers do not include streaming numbers for ESPN3.com or the Watch ESPN App.
The Majority of College Softball fans watch the games online including UCF softball fans, who watch all the home games and watch and listen to select UCF road contests on UCFKnights.com and go to other school sites to watch road games. UCFKnights.com broadcasted UCF softball games since 2004 with video streaming starting in 2008.
Below is a breakdown of the top markets that watched UCF-USF Softball telecast on ESPNU
|
Rank
|
DMA
|
RTG
|
|
1
|
Tulsa
|
0.5
|
|
|
Louisville
|
0.5
|
|
3
|
Greenvll-Spart-Ashevll-And
|
0.4
|
|
|
Sacramnto-Stkton-Modesto
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0.4
|
|
|
Greensboro-H.Point-W.Salem
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0.4
|
|
6
|
Norkfolk
|
0.3
|
|
|
New Orleans
Orlando
|
0.3
0.2
|
Tulsa which is the home of the 2016 American Conference Softball Tournament (May 12-14) is in the state of Oklahoma which is a big state for college softball as the Women’s College World Series is held every year in Oklahoma City.
ESPN will carry the American Championship Game on Saturday, May 14 at Noon on ESPN.
The UCF Softball telecast was the most watched non-UCF football telecast of the season as it did better then every UCF men’s basketball game this past season. The most watched UCF men’s basketball telecast of the season was the Knights’ last regular season game at UConn on March 6 with 95,000 viewers on ESPNU.
One thing that cannot be questioned is college softball is more popular then women’s basketball in Orlando. The UCF-USF softball telecast out drew the USF-UCF women’s basketball broadcast earlier in the year on ESPNU by a 4 to 1 ratio. The Bulls-Knights women’s basketball game that aired on Jan. 24 on ESPNU and featured the No. 15 Bulls garnered 31,000 viewers nationally. The UCF-USF softball outdrew the women’s basketball game which just its 18-49 demo viewers on Sunday with 49,000 viewers.
To put those numbers in perspective, UCF-USF softball viewers were closer to UCF-USF football numbers the last two seasons than women’s basketball was to softball audience.
The football matchup between the Bulls-Knights on Thanksgiving night had 388,000 viewers on ESPN, while the 2014 matchup between the two schools which took place on Black Friday garnered 447,000 viewers on ESPN2.
Here is Breakdown of UCF’s Top-10 Most Watched Sporting Events on TV since Fall 2015.
- East Carolina at UCF Football on November 19 on ESPN. 669,000 Viewers
- South Florida at UCF Football on November 26 on ESPN 388,000 Viewers
- UCF at South Carolina Football on September 26 on ESPNU 380,000 Viewers
- Houston at UCF Football on October 24 on ESPNews 171,000 Viewers
- UCF at Stanford Football on September 12 on Fox Sports 1 151,000 Viewers
- UCF at South Florida Softball on May 1 on ESPN U 124,000 Viewers
- UCF at Connecticut Men’s Basketball on March 6 on ESPNU 95,000 Viewers
- UCF at Tulane Football on October 3 on ESPNews 73,000 Viewers
- UCF at Tulsa Football on November 7 on ESPNews 67,000 Viewers
- Temple at UCF Men’s Basketball on February 6 on ESPNU 62,000 Viewers
