It may have been a lousy weekend for the ACC, but the Labor Day matchup between Miami and Florida State was a ratings winner for hte league and ESPN.
While the ACC went 4-6 in non-conference play, Miami edged the Seminoles 38-34 as 8.4 million viewers watched.
That made the contest the second-most watched regular season college football game in the 30 years of ESPN. The most watched college football game on the WWL was the 2006 match up between the same two teams that Florida State won 13-10.
Miami has played in four of the five highest rated football games show on ESPN
To put it into perspective, the Alabama win over Virginia Tech on ABC Saturday night drew about 7.1 million viewers. That is an improvement over the past couple of years, as ABC and ESPN enjoyed ratings boosts across the board from last year's opening week.
ABC regional coverage on Saturday afternoon featured Oklahoma State's win over Georgia, and it pulled a 3.5 rating for 5.7 million viewers. That game hammered the Notre Dame-Navy contest on NBC which only drew a little over 2 million viewers.
For the opening week, ESPN averaged a 2.3 rating and 3.6 million viewers for its college football coverage, up 28% and 34%, respectively, from a 1.8 and 2.7 million last year.
With USC at Ohio State in primetime Saturday, the WWL can expect another good week, while NBC can only watch as ABC will pull a very good number for Notre Dame's visit to the Big House to play Michigan.