BCS Championship Game Garners Low TV Rating

Monday night's BCS National Championship Game may have generated tremendous interest in the states of Alabama and Louisiana, but the same cannot be said for the rest of the United States.

The Alabama victory over LSU drew a national rating of 14.0. This figure represents the second lowest viewership level in the 14-year history of the BCS. The 2012 rating was down eight percent from last year's Auburn vs. Oregon matchup in Glendale, Arizona.

The lowest rated BCS National Championship Game remains the 2002 Rose Bowl battle between Miami and Nebraska.

The highest rated BCS game was the legendary 2006 Rose Bowl involving Texas and USC.

To no one's surprise, the highest overnight local market ratings took place in Birmingham (61.2) and New Orleans (53.3).

The regional, SEC centric nature of this game was evident when noting that of the 10 markets with the best viewership, nine of them were in the South, with seven of the markets located in SEC states.  

Minneapolis/St Paul was the only market, outside of the South, to crack the top 10.