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Memphis Tigers Football TV Ratings Down 56% in 2024

Much like their attendance, the TV ratings for the Memphis Tigers football team were way down in 2024. Attendance is down to less than 25,000 per game, the worst since 2012. The TV ratings drop is just as worrying. This year, the Tigers averaged a paltry 424,600 viewers per game across ten nationally televised games. That is their lowest average
By Lawrence Dockery - January 10, 2025, 1:57 pm - 0 comments
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Much like their attendance, the TV ratings for the Memphis Tigers football team were way down in 2024. Attendance is down to less than 25,000 per game, the worst since 2012. The TV ratings drop is just as worrying. This year, the Tigers averaged a paltry 424,600 viewers per game across ten nationally televised games. That is their lowest average viewership since 2014.

Just how bad was it for the Tigers in 2024? Here’s a list of all 13 games played by the Tigers, the channel each game aired on, the viewership figure for every game.

DateMatch-UpChannelViewership
August 31, 2024Memphis vs. North AlabamaESPN+N/A
September 7, 2024Memphis vs. TroyESPNU20,000
September 14, 2024Memphis @ Florida StateESPN1,590,000
September 21, 2024Memphis @ NavyCBSSNN/A
September 28, 2024Memphis vs. Middle TennesseeESPNU39,000
October 12, 2024Memphis vs. USF*ESPN+N/A
October 19, 2024Memphis vs. North TexasESPNU30,000
October 26, 2024Memphis vs. CharlotteESPNU41,000
November 2, 2024Memphis @ UTSAESPN2147,000
November 8, 2024Memphis vs. RiceESPN2407,000
November 16, 2024Memphis vs. UABESPN2117,000
November 28, 2024Memphis @ TulaneESPN655,000
December 17, 2024Memphis vs. West Virginia*ESPN1,200,000
*denotes game played at neutral site

Overall, Memphis’ TV ratings dropped 56% from last year to this year.

It is important to note here, that streaming services such as ESPN+ do not report viewership numbers, and channels such as CBS Sports Network are not tracked by Nielsen so viewership figures for games on those channels are not available.

It is also important to note that the Tigers lost out on a chance for bigger exposure on the USF game. Originally scheduled to be played in Tampa on Friday, October 11 on ESPN, the game had to be rescheduled to Saturday, October 12 in Orlando on ESPN+ because of Hurricane Milton.

Unsurprisingly the two largest viewing audiences this year for the Tigers were the two games they played against Power Conference opponents, as the game against ACC foe Florida State in Tallahassee drew 1,590,000 people and the Frisco Bowl against West Virginia of the Big XII drew 1,200,000 viewers. Once they got into conference play, however, the numbers were far below that. Even the game against Tulane, played on Thanksgiving night as the only college football game on, failed to crack 700,000 viewers.

Here’s a look at the year-by-year TV ratings for the Tigers.

YearAverage ViewershipNumber of National TV Games% Change
2012N/A0N/A
2013173,3333N/A
2014314,0007+78%
20151,232,5569+293%
2016909,2867-26%
20171,432,8899+58%
20181,832,5006+28%
20191,814,20010-1%
2020952,0006-48%
2021579,7504-39%
2022696,0006+20%
2023954,1258+37%
2024424,60010-56%

This past season’s average viewership of 424,600 viewers per game is the lowest for the Tigers in a decade. A stretch where the Tigers averaged over a million viewers per game three times in four seasons feels like ancient history now. Those seasons were undoubtedly helped by the Tigers making it to the AAC title game three years in a row and playing in a NY6 bowl game. Sadly, under Ryan Silverfield, the Tigers still have yet to make it to an AAC title game.

As was the case with the attendance, the biggest reason feels like it has to be the schedule. Good as a team like UTSA has been the last four years, it’s not a match-up that gets the juices flowing for Tiger fans or the larger college football fandom. And games against minnows like Charlotte and North Texas are certainly not going to move the needle. Because of this the games are on channels such as ESPNU that are not available in as many households as ABC or ESPN.

But it can’t all be because of the conference schedule. In fact, a number of AAC teams drew reasonably good TV viewership this year.

TeamAverage ViewershipNumber of National TV Games
Army2,257,7508
Navy1,987,3339
USF1,101,6676
Temple717,0004
Tulane695,90911
UTSA540,5006
Memphis424,60010
FAU396,0004
North Texas387,8577
East Carolina386,1437
Tulsa314,3333
Rice312,5002
Charlotte182,4005
UAB151,0002

Memphis football’s average TV viewership ranked 7th in a 14-team conference, despite having the second most national TV games of anybody. The top three teams in the league were all light years ahead of Memphis, as they all drew over a million viewers per game. Army and Navy were both helped by playing against Notre Dame this year, as well as playing each other (the annual Army-Navy game as a standalone game on CBS is regularly one of the most watched games every college football season). USF also got a boost from playing Alabama and Miami, two big brands of the sport.

The question that must be asked is this: why do people not want to attend Tiger football games or watch the Tigers on TV?

The oldest saying in Memphis is, “Memphis will always support a winner.” (That statement may be belied by the recent departure of Memphis 901 FC). Tiger football is a winning team. They have gone to eleven straight bowl games (though the 2021 Hawaii Bowl was canceled after the Tigers had already arrived) a streak that would have been unfathomable as recently as 2013. In fact, the Tigers have one of the longest active bowl streaks in all of college football, up there with the likes of Georgia, Alabama, Clemson, Oklahoma, and Ohio State. Prior to the start of the bowl streak in 2014, the Tigers had only ever been to a total of seven bowl games.

Memphis has also now won double-digit games in consecutive seasons for the first time in program history. By going 10-3 last year and following it up with 11-2 this year, Ryan Silverfield has done something that Mike Norvell and Justin Fuente and Tommy West didn’t do. Additionally, Silverfield has won three straight games against Power Conference opponents and has beaten at least one Power Conference opponent in three of the last four seasons: Mississippi State of the SEC in 2021, Iowa State of the Big XII in 2023, Florida State of the ACC in 2024, and West Virginia of the Big XII in 2024.

Despite all the success, the support for Tiger football, both in the stands and on the TV, is the lowest it’s been in a very long time. Why is that?

It all comes back to how the games have played out during Ryan Silverfield’s tenure. It’s not just that the fans want the Tigers to win a lot of games but that, because of the poor quality of the programs in the conference, the Tigers need to look good winning those games. For the most part, that has not been the case under Ryan Silverfield.

In his five-plus seasons as the Memphis head coach, Ryan Silverfield has won 42 games. Of those 42 wins, 18 of them have come by single digits. And of those 18 single digit wins, 12 of them came against teams that finished with losing records. In his five-plus seasons at the Memphis head coach, Ryan Silverfield has lost 21 games. Of those 21 losses, 6 of them were games where the Tigers had a double-digit lead at some point. In 2021, the Tigers were up 21-0 in the first quarter against UTSA and then the following week were up 17-0 in the first quarter against Temple. They lost both games. In 2022, the Tigers were up 26-7 in the fourth quarter against Houston and lost and followed that up the next week with a loss to East Carolina despite having been up 17-0 in the first quarter. In 2023, the Tigers were ahead 21-10 in the third quarter against Tulane and somehow lost the game by ten points. And this year, despite having a 24-14 second quarter lead against UTSA, the Tigers fell by a margin of eight points.

Tigers fans might also point to a pair of other factors in their dissatisfaction with the Ryan Silverfield era. First, Ryan Silverfield has never finished better than 3rd in the AAC and even with consecutive 10+ win seasons in 2023 and 2024, finished fourth in the conference both years. Those fans would also point to the fact that no Memphis players have been taken in either of the last two editions of the NFL Draft, despite a Memphis player having been taken every year from 2014 to 2022.

It’s a very frustrating dichotomy for Memphis at the moment. On the one hand, they are doing things that they have never done before and are currently eleven years into a run of success that has surpassed the wildest dreams of even the most optimistic of Tiger faithful from back before 2013. On the other hand, there is a sense that too much has been left on the table and that the program has not lived up to its full potential the last several years, especially now that a Group of 5 team is guaranteed a spot in the expanded College Football Playoff. That frustration is compounded by the fact that some, not all, preseason prognostications had the Tigers earning the Group of 5 bid to the Playoff this year.

What happens next year remains to be seen. Hopefully, a third straight bowl win gives to cap an 11-win season generates some momentum for the 2025 season. Next season’s schedule will feature many of the same AAC teams, but it is one particular game in the non-conference schedule that could be the biggest boost for the Tigers. Three of the four non-conference games are not likely to impress many: Georgia State, Troy, and UT-Chattanooga. But the fourth non-conference game is against Arkansas out of the SEC. Not only is that a Power Conference opponent, but it’s one with a large fan base here in the Memphis area. That game could be a classic trap game for the Hogs as they will have played at Ole Miss the week before and will host Notre Dame in Fayetteville the following week. If the Tigers can pull out a win against them, the tenor around Ryan Silverfield’s tenure could very well change for the better.

Photo Credit: Memphis Flyer

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