Dave Portnoy found an “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 Nielsen-rated ESPN networks, a roughly 12 percent drop from the 25.1 million who watched Michigan’s 34-13 win over Washington last year, per the report.
“Yikes,” Portnoy said in a quote tweeted of a post with the numbers. “Like I said, nobody cared. Too far into nfl playoffs, 4th place conference team, inauguration. If a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears it does it make any noise.”
Monday’s national championship was the third-least-viewed title game in the past 11 years but eclipsed Ohio State’s win over Oregon on New Year’s Day as the most-watched college football game of the year.
It comes in the first year of the expanded College Football Playoff — with the field going from four to 12 teams this season.
It’s important to note that ESPN is available in 65 million homes, which is substantially less than in years past as streaming takes a piece away from cable providers who previously reported massive ratings.
The crux of the issue, according to Portnoy, is that the national championship game competes too heavily with the NFL playoffs.
Ahead of the Jan. 20 game, Portnoy wrote on on X, “I don’t know if it’s the inauguration, the NFL Playoffs, MLK Day, the teams or what, but there is just no buzz for this college game tonight.”
Many have speculated that the end of the season should happen in December, as college football takes a break for academics and student-athletes prepare for their finals.
Instead, they are forced to matchup with the NFL, where fans were coming off the season’s best weekend with four games featuring the league’s best teams spanning Saturday and Sunday.
Portnoy previously had been making fun of 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 game-long drama in recent years, with every contest since 2018 featuring a team facing at least a 15-point deficit in the game.