Mizzou’s local football TV ratings soar, but Cotton Bowl presents possible challenges: Media Views

It’s Missouri’s biggest bowl game appearance in more than half a century, the culmination of the Tigers’ best season in nearly a decade.

And if the team’s recent television-ratings track record in St. Louis holds, a big audience will be watching locally as Mizzou tangles with traditional college football powerhouse Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl on Friday. ESPN has the telecast of the game, at 7 p.m. inside AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

It will be the Tigers’ first appearance in a so-called New Year’s Six big-payday bowl game, and they never played in one of the NYS predecessors — a Bowl Championship Series game. They have been in the Cotton Bowl two previous times in this century, but neither of those games had the lofty status.

So this will be Mizzou’s biggest bowl game since it played Penn State in the Orange Bowl to wrap up its 1969 season. There were 11 bowl games then; there are 41 now. (The Tigers lost that game 10-3 to finish at 9-2 and were sixth in the final Associated Press poll.)

This year, the Tigers were a mostly off-Broadway show for almost two-thirds of their season, as seven of their first eight games were relegated to third- or fourth-tier television outlets — SEC Network and ESPNU. And the only one on a bigger channel, ESPN, had an 11 a.m. kickoff.

But all that changed by November, with MU soaring, as CBS showed three of MU’s games nationally. Two of those were in the marquee 2:30 p.m. Saturday slot to break nearly a five-year drought of not playing in that showcase spot. Both were seen in excess of 10% of the St. Louis market, according to viewership-tracking company Nielsen.

A narrow loss to Georgia generated a 10.8 rating, then a blowout of Tennessee was at 11.1. That was followed by MU’s Black Friday rout of Arkansas that roared in at 11.9, the best figure for any of the nine meetings in the series that the network televised.

In contrast, the highest-rated Cardinals game the entire baseball season was 10.6, and their local telecasts averaged 5.6. Granted, the Cards play almost every day for six months and MU games are just once a week, and the Tigers enjoyed a breakout season.

Mizzou’s lone November game not on CBS was shown on ESPN, the Tigers’ scintillating come-from-behind 33-31 victory over Florida. That drew a 9 rating in St. Louis.

So that sets the stage for the Cotton Bowl, but will a big audience follow now that more than a month has gone by since the Tigers wrapped up the regular season at 10-2? There are a couple of factors that could hurt the rating despite the long break between games. First, the contest is on ESPN, and cable TV ratings in St. Louis historically aren’t as high as for games on over-the-air networks. Second, the contest is on a Friday, traditionally one of the least-viewed nights of the week for TV programs.

Local CBS affiliate KMOV (Channel 4) was a major beneficiary of the Tigers’ big November ratings. Its general manager, JD Sosnoff, said “we had really strong advertiser support” for the MU games, and those contests also helped attract viewers to other shows on the station.

But he was not ready to make any viewership predictions on the Cotton Bowl other than in general terms.

“I’m sure it will be a good number,” he said.

KMOV will have a pregame show originating from Arlington at 6:30 p.m., anchored by Channel 4 sportscasters Tamar Sher and Brian Kennedy. ESPN’s pregame show, which starts at 6 p.m., figures to be more of a big-picture look at the upcoming big bowl games — including the playoffs.

“We get to have 30 minutes dedicated to Mizzou and Ohio State, which is a rare opportunity and one we wanted to take advantage of,” Sosnoff said.

KMOV won’t carry MU games next season because CBS’ contract to show Southeastern Conference football contests just expired, with Disney channels (ABC, ESPN, SEC Network, etc.) taking over the full load next season after sharing it with CBS. But Sosnoff said the station plans to continue to cover the team at the local level.

“If Missouri continues that momentum in the next year, which I think they will, we’re going to continue to invest in coverage of that program outside of play by play,” he said.

Dave Pasch is set to do the Cotton Bowl play-by-play for ESPN. He is the radio voice of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals and calls college football as well as NBA and college basketball contests for ESPN. He’ll work with his usual college football broadcast partners, analyst Dusty Dvoracek and reporter Tom Luginbill.

Dvoracek was a defensive tackle out of the University of Oklahoma who played in 13 games in the NFL for Chicago over the 2007-08 seasons. Luginbill is a longtime college football analyst for ESPN who also is the national recruiting director of Scouts Inc., a football player-evaluation service owned by ESPN.

On radio, Mike Kelly (play-by-play) and Chris Gervino (analysis) have the call on the Tigers’ network, which airs locally on KTRS (550 AM). Pregame coverage begins at 5 p.m..

ESPN is set to show all three games in the College Football Playoff, beginning with the semifinal contests on Monday (New Year’s Day). The network’s No. 1 team — Chris Fowler (play-by-play) and Kirk Herbstreit (analysis), along with sideline reporters Holly Rowe and Laura Rutledge, broadcast the Rose Bowl. In that one, No. 1 Michigan and No. 4 Alabama clash at 4 p.m. (St. Louis time) in Pasadena, California.

That’s followed by No. 2 Washington and No. 3 Texas meeting in the Sugar Bowl at 7:45 p.m. in New Orleans. Sean McDonough has the play-by-play assignment there, with commentary from Greg McElroy and sideline reports from Molly McGrath and Katie George.

Most of the Rose Bowl crew also has the title game, at 6:30 p.m. the following Monday in Houston. The exception is that McGrath replaces Rutledge.