• ESPN Beat FS1 Head-to-Head by 57% 
• ESPN Aired No. 9 Wisconsin Opener Last Night, Second Consecutive Night Featuring a Big Ten Top Team; No. 6 Penn State and No. 11 Michigan on ABC Today

ESPN’s five-day, 65 game college football kickoff weekend slate continued on Friday night with No. 9 Wisconsin hosting Utah State (9 p.m. ET). The telecast of one of the Big Ten’s marquee teams led to significant growth in both ESPN’s overnight rating and streaming audience from the network’s first Friday night college telecast of last season. On top of its own growth, the network’s telecast of the Badgers victory topped FS1’s college football overnight rating by 57%.

ESPN’s Friday night telecast earned a 1.1 overnight, up 57% from Colorado State vs. Colorado, ESPN’s opening Friday night telecast last season. The game also saw 54% growth in streaming average minute and 319,000 people streamed a portion of the game, up 96% from last season’s Rams-Buffaloes game on ESPN.

Through the first two days of college football’s kickoff weekend, ESPN has televised two of the four Big Teams that played in last season’s New Year’s Six. Today, the other two Big Ten New Year’s Six participants will be showcased on ESPN’s networks when No. 6 Penn State hosts Akron (noon on ABC) and No. 11 Michigan plays No. 17 Florida (3:30 p.m. on ABC).

No. 3 Florida State vs. No. 1 Alabama Highlights ESPN’s Unprecedented, Industry-Leading Kickoff Weekend Schedule
ESPN’s industry-leading college football kickoff weekend schedule, which continues through Monday, Sept. 4, will be unprecedented as, for the first time in the sport’s storied history, the preseason’s top team opens the season vs. an opponent ranked in the top 3 when Florida State and Alabama meet on ABC’s Saturday Night Football. In addition to the Seminoles-Crimson Tide, ESPN’s schedule is peppered with top teams including 17 Top 25 teams in the sport’s first full week.

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Media Contact: Derek Volner at [email protected]  or 860-766-8019 (@DerekVolner)