Football

11/12/2026 |  NFL Viewership Climbs As ESPN, Amazon Deliver Double-Digit Gains (Front Office Sports) As the NFL hits the midway point of the 2026 season, viewership is nearing a historic high, and weekday games have been a key driver. 
Through Week 9, the league is averaging 18.3 million viewers per game, representing the second-highest audience average on record for this point of the season, and up 2% from 2025. The NFL’s dominance across U.S. media remains firmly intact, as the league has the top 49 shows since the start of the current television season. 

11/12/2026 |  NFL viewership among highest recorded through halfway point (Sports Media Watch) If slightly off the prior week’s milestone pace, NFL viewership remains in the neighborhood at the halfway mark.
NFL regular season windows were averaging 18.3 million viewers through Week 9 of the season, up 2% from last year and behind only 2010 as the highest nine-week average in the Nielsen people meter era. 

11/11/2026 |  NFL Network’s Europe Games Average a Record 6.9M in First ESPN Season (Front Office Sports) In its first season under ESPN ownership, NFL Network’s Sunday morning slate of international games averaged a record 6.9 million viewers.
Bengals-Falcons in Madrid on Sunday was NFL Network’s fifth and final European game broadcast of the season, drawing 6.2 million viewers. The 6.9 million average audience for this season’s five matchups is up 16% from last season’s record of 6.2 million across six games. Fox will broadcast Patriots-Lions in Munich this coming Sunday, the final Sunday morning European game of the 2026 NFL season.

11/10/2026 |  The Ripple Effects of a 24-Team College Football Playoff (Front Office Sports) The College Football Playoff announced plans Monday to expand to a 24-team field beginning in 2027, and there will be several ripple effects that will fundamentally change the sport. The new field will consist of every conference champion from the Power 4 (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC), the highest-ranked team from the Group of 6 (American, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac-12, or Sun Belt), and 19 at-large spots selected by the CFP selection committee. 

11/9/2026 |  CFP officially expanding to 24 teams with new ESPN deal (Sports Media Watch) The College Football Playoff is officially expanding to 24 teams after reaching a new deal with ESPN, setting the sport on course for yet another new era.