New January kickoff could mean big TV ratings for Kansas State, LSU at Texas Bowl
Throughout its history, the Texas Bowl has always fallen somewhere on the calendar between Christmas and New Year’s Day.
That is considered a sweet spot for most new-school postseason games that don’t have the old-school tradition of the Rose Bowl or a current affiliation with the College Football Playoff.
But the Texas Bowl decided to try something new this time around. Kickoff at NRG Stadium in Houston won’t happen until 8 p.m. on Jan. 4, making it the penultimate game of the season. Every other bowl will be over by then. Only the national championship game will be staged later, on Jan. 10.
How will the new date and time work out?
For now, it’s hard to say. But one thing does seem likely: The ESPN broadcast of Texas Bowl should attract a large TV audience.
There’s a chance it could even end up being the most watched K-State game in years.
“It’s an opportunity for us to own the night and showcase our community and our event on the biggest of stages,” Texas Bowl executive director David Fletcher said. “A standalone event on ESPN is something we are really excited about.”
The last two times K-State played a football game in January, the ratings were impressive.
More than 7 million people tuned in to watch the Wildcats play Arkansas in the 2016 Liberty Bowl, according to Sports Media Watch. A year earlier, 5.6 million viewers watched K-State play UCLA in the 2015 Alamo Bowl.
All bowl games produce strong viewership numbers. That’s why there are so many of them. But none of K-State’s recent December bowl trips moved the needle like those two January games. An audience of 4.38 million tuned in to watch K-State defeat Michigan in the 2013 Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. Its other three December bowl games over the past eight years averaged 3.46 million viewers.
By comparison, only two of K-State’s games topped 2 million viewers this season -- vs. Oklahoma and at Texas. Most of its games attract closer to 1 million viewers.
Without any other football games to compete against next week, the Texas Bowl could experience a similar surge in TV ratings.
That is most certainly one of the reasons why Texas Bowl organizers were willing to try playing in January.
“We’ve worked hard as a community to create a world-class experience through all of our events to be a destination for major college football,” Fletcher said. “That’s something that is really appealing about having that last shot on bowl season to showcase our game.”
The involvement of LSU shouldn’t hurt either. The Tigers are a college football blue blood with a massive fan base. The last time they played in the Texas Bowl, on Dec. 29, 2015, nearly 5 million people watched them defeat Texas Tech.
Now, the new timing is somewhat awkward for Kansas State fans. They aren’t used to traveling for football this far into January. A home men’s basketball game against Texas is also scheduled for Tuesday night. Their attention will be split between two sporting events.
It will also be interesting to see what kind of crowd shows up at NRG Stadium. Fans at both schools may be less willing to travel at the beginning of 2022 than they were are the end of 2021. There have been 14 previous Texas Bowls, and attendance topped 50,000 in all but one of them.
K-State’s last trip to Houston featured a crowd of nearly 70,000 against Texas A&M in 2016.
If a smaller crowd shows up next week, perhaps a larger TV audience will make up for it.