Top 25 college football teams to play most nationally-televised games: No. 19 will shock you

BYU football plays an absurd amount of nationally-televised games.

When you think about putting college football teams on national television, who do you think of?

Naturally, you think of major national programs like the Notre Dame Fighting Irish or any Power 5 blue-blood to choose from. It really comes down to what television networks believe will get a huge rating. As for the top 25 programs in the country that play in the most nationally-televised games, you’re never going to guess who comes in at No. 19. That would be the BYU Cougars.

Since 2016, when it comes to playing big-time games on one of the four big television networks (CBS, ESPN/ABC, FOX, NBC), BYU football is right up there with the very best programs in the country.

https://twitter.com/BYUfootball/status/1270526346356125697

Put BYU football on a nationally-televised game and you’ll get a number.

BYU ranks 19th in a four-way tie with the Texas Longhorns, the Mississippi State Bulldogs and the Boise State Broncos with 31 nationally-televised games since 2016. The Cougars edge out the UCLA Bruins, the West Virginia Mountaineers and the Oklahoma State Cowboys for top-25 exposure in the country. Along with Boise State, BYU is the only other Group of 5 team on the list.

While being top 25 in the country is great, looking at where BYU football falls out on the West Coast is even more shocking. Only the USC Trojans (No. 8) and the Washington Huskies (No. 16) have been on national television more than the Cougars. Keep in mind those are the two blue-bloods of the Pac-12. Back in 2016, Washington made it to the College Football Playoff.

Some of the programs BYU ranks ahead of out on the West Coast are jaw-dropping. The Cougars are on national television more often than programs like UCLA, the Stanford Cardinal (No. 27), the Oregon Ducks (No. 30) and the in-state rival Utah Utes (No. 40). Television executives would rather put BYU on than its Holy War rival. If that doesn’t speak volumes, I don’t know what does.

All we know is if you put BYU on your television, people are going to watch the Cougars play.

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