Move to Monday works for FCS Championship, getting big television rating

FARGO – The move to a Monday was a huge boon for the FCS Championship Game.

North Dakota State’s 35-32 win over Montana State had 2.41 million viewers tuning into ESPN, making it the highest rated championship game since NDSU’s win over James Madison in January 2020.

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That game was televised on ABC, which had 2.69 million people watching on ABC.

The move to Monday was a calculated one by the FCS Playoff Committee, knowing there were no other football games scheduled for that day. That move paid off in a big way.

“We have heard from a lot of people about the purity of FCS football. Playing for that institution, playing for their teammates and I think that’s special about FCS football and we were excited to highlight that on Monday night.” said Matt Larsen, FCS Playoff Committee chair.

This rating continues a ratings boom for the FCS Playoffs. The two semifinal games that were played on a Saturday on ABC, each scored big numbers, with 1.5 million people watching NDSU’s 28-21 win over South Dakota State. Montana State’s win over South Dakota had north of 1.3 million viewers. Each were surprising numbers, considering there were NFL regular season games on and the College Football Playoff quarterfinals happening as well.

According to Programming Insider, the FCS Championship Game finished tenth in total viewership of all TV programming and was tops among adults between 18-49 years old.

“ABC had those windows on Saturday and felt the FCS was deserving that opportunity.” said Ty Halpin, NCAA director of championships. “The Monday night concept we had worked on to get away from the NFL. We don’t have a target number, but anticipated a very good rating.”

Halpin added that the game is committed to Monday night for 2026, when the championship moves to FirstBank Stadium in Nashville. That is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 5, 2026.

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The fact that the game was close and went down to the wire certainly didn’t hurt. According to Craig Haley from Stats Perform, viewership peaked from 8:45-9 p.m. to 3. 1 million viewers, when the game was being decided.

Anecdotally, there were noticeable changes on how ESPN approached the broadcast. They dedicated nearly a half-hour of time to preview the game at 5:30 p.m. on ESPN. There were also numerous on-air promotions for the game.

The Twitter account Sports TV News and Updates reported that ESPN spent more time talking about the FCS Championship during their halftime show at four minutes, than they did about the CFP semifinals (which also air on ESPN) at about 3:50.

After the game, the highlights led Scott Van Pelt’s SportsCenter show, along with getting a segment on the popular sports debate show, Pardon The Interruption.

The last two title games were played on Sundays, with last year’s South Dakota State win over Montana getting 1.04 million viewers. The Jacks win over the Bison in January 2023 had 1.07 million viewers.

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