Alabama's win over Georgia draws biggest SEC championship game TV audience in 14 years

The game that caused College Football Playoff chaos drew a monster television audience.

According to Sports Media Watch, over 17.5 million people watched Alabama upset Georgia in Saturday’s SEC championship game and get into the College Football Playoff ahead of Florida State. It was the largest SEC title game audience since 2009 when Alabama beat Florida and Tim Tebow in a matchup of undefeated teams.

The SEC title game ranks as the second-most watched game of the season behind Michigan’s win over Ohio State in Week 13. That game, like the SEC title game, also had massive playoff implications. The win got the Wolverines into the Big Ten championship game and they easily qualified for the playoff with a 26-0 win over Iowa for the Big Ten title.

Alabama was at No. 8 entering the SEC championship and Georgia was at No. 1. The win moved the Crimson Tide (12-1) up four spots and into the four-team playoff ahead of Florida State (13-0). Georgia (12-1) became the first team to drop from No. 1 to outside the top four in the final rankings.

It was also the final SEC game on CBS. The conference has an exclusive contract with ABC and ESPN starting in 2024 as Texas and Oklahoma join the conference. The SEC on CBS has been a television staple for the past three decades.

The Big Ten title game was the second-most watched game of the weekend with an audience of over 10 million. It had less than a million more viewers than Friday night’s Pac-12 title game won by Washington over Oregon. Nearly 8 million people watched Texas make the College Football Playoff by beating Oklahoma State in the Big 12 title game early Saturday afternoon while Florida State’s win over Louisville in the ACC championship game at the same time as the Big Ten title game drew just over 7 million viewers.