Too bad because ABC loves them.
Thanks to the early start -- and no real competition from other games -- the Red River Rivalry was the most watched college football game of the Oct. 17th weekend.
Texas' 16-13 win over OU this year brought one million more fans to the TV sets than the 7.7 million who watched the game in 2008.
ABC drew a 5.7 rating and 8.7 million viewers for the annual Cotton Bowl contest. Texas' win is the third-most viewed college football telecast of the season, behind only Florida/LSU (10.5 million) and USC/Ohio State ( 10.6 million).
Oct 17th was a good day for college football matchups, and for the TV networks.
NBC saw Notre Dame pull its highest ratings in over three years in their 34-27 loss to USC.
USC's dramatic win over Notre Dame had four million more viewers than those that watched the 2007 game on NBC.
The Michigan-Notre Dame last year drew 5.3 million viewers for NBC, but this year's USC contest pulled in 6.5 million viewers for the Peacock network.
Meanwhile at the same time, CBS was pulling in a slightly bigger audience for its Florida-Arkansas game.
AKA as "Meyer's March To Atlanta."
The Gators 23-20 win over the Razorbacks drew 6.8 million viewers.The game is the second-most viewed college football game of the season on CBS, behind only a primetime Florida/LSU matchup.
CBS has seen dramatic increases across the board for its Saturday SEC package, and ABC is seeing higher ratings for its afternoon package as well.
While ABC has won Saturday nights most of the time this year, the two highest-rated college games were on other networks. CBS has Florida-LSU, while ESPN televised the USC-Ohio State contest.
This week the Texas-Oklahoma State game will be a split telecast. Some of the nation will see it on ABC, while other parts will get the game on ESPN2.