Penn State Football was among the nation’s leaders in TV viewership in 2021

Penn State Football has routinely been one of the most watched college football programs for a long time, and not surprisingly, 2021 was no different.

According to an article by Zach Miller of Medium, Penn State ranked fourth in the country for average regular season TV viewership in 2021 – even one spot ahead of the National Champion Georgia Bulldogs.

The Nittany Lions averaged 3.87 million viewers last season, behind just Ohio State, Michigan, and Alabama.

So, three of the four most watched teams in college football reside in the Big Ten; more specifically, the Big Ten East. Michigan State was also in the top ten.

Penn State also had cracked the “4 million club”, as Miller calls it, in half of their regular season matchups. The Auburn game led the way with 7.61 million viewers; followed by at Ohio State, at Iowa, vs Michigan, at Wisconsin; and the Indiana matchup rounds out the list with an even 4.00 million.

Zach Miller also released an article last summer that tracked the most watched college football programs from the 2015-2019 seasons – Penn State came in at No. 10 on that list with an average of 2.55 million viewers per game over the course of that five-year span.

In the NIL era, being one of the most watched programs is definitely a good thing. Players that play for programs with massive followings will be more likely to secure more and/or more valuable NIL deals, which will help both with recruiting high school talent and in the transfer portal.

It definitely is no surprise that Penn State Football has drawn more TV viewers than almost every team in the country, given the large fanbase and massive alumni association. Let’s see if we can get them into the top three in 2022.