Dave Portnoy found the “L” for Ohio State even as they won the national championship.
The Barstool founder and Michigan alum mocked the poor ratings for rival Ohio State's national championship win over Notre Dame.
Monday's broadcast averaged 22.1 million viewers across ESPN's Nielsen-rated networks, down about 12 percent from the 25.1 million who watched Michigan's 34-13 win over Washington last year, according to the report.
“Yes,” Portnoy said in a quote he posted on Twitter about a post containing the numbers. “Like I said, no one cares. So far away from the NFL playoffs, fourth place conference team, opener. If a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it it makes any noise.”
Monday's national championship was the third-least-watched title game in the past 11 years, but it surpassed Ohio State's win over Oregon on New Year's Day as the most-watched college football game of the year.
This comes in the first year of the expanded College Football Playoffs — the field goes from four to 12 teams this season.
It's important to note that ESPN is available in 65 million homes, which is much lower than in years past as streaming takes a chunk out of cable providers that previously reported massive ratings.
The crux of the problem, according to Portnoy, is that the national championship game competes too closely with the NFL playoffs.
Before the January 20 game, Portnoy wrote on
Many have speculated that the end of the season should take place in December, as college football takes a break for academics and student-athletes prepare for finals.
Instead, they are forced to compete with the NFL, where fans were coming off their best weekend of the season with four games featuring the league's best teams spanning Saturday and Sunday.
Portnoy previously mocked the Buckeyes for winning the national championship but losing to Michigan to end the regular season.
“We own you,” Portnoy, who attended Michigan, said on X.
The national title game has also lacked the drawn-out drama of recent years, with every contest since 2018 featuring a team facing a deficit of at least 15 points per game.
