College football fans just settled the new blood vs. blue blood debate with CFP ratings

Are you not entertained? College football fans sure were watching the national championship between Indiana and Miami, and ESPN has the numbers to prove it.

According to the network's measurements, the 2026 CFP final averaged a whopping 30.1 million viewers and topped out at 33.2 million. That made it the second-most watched national championship game in the CFP era behind only the inaugural edition between Ohio State and Oregon in 2015 (33.9 million viewers).

That means two non-traditional teams commanded the attention of the nation and bested historical matchups between blue bloods. It's a bad day to be a hater of parity in college football.

2026 CFP final proves casual fans are still interested in college football even without blue bloods

You'd be hard-pressed to find any college football fan that predicted an undefeated Indiana would defeat a red-hot Miami in the national championship. You would probably have an easier time finding fans that would've told you at the beginning of the season they'd not be as interested in watching that title game, since it did not feature juggernauts like Ohio State or Georgia.

But numbers don't lie and we can all see now that college football fans have embraced the new reality of the sport. NIL, the transfer portal and now revenue sharing have enabled more programs outside the big boys of the SEC and Big Ten to assemble talented rosters and truly compete. The ironic part about that is Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti managed to lift this year's trophy after just two years at the helm in Bloomington and exactly zero five-star recruits on his roster.

That made the Hoosiers a unique Cinderella despite being undefeated and earning the No. 1 seed in the 12-team bracket. Miami, remembered as the blue blood program of the 90s and early 2000s, played the part of underdog as the 10-seed and being controversially included in the CFP over Notre Dame.

Don't let anyone try to tell you Miami is still a blue blood. This was their first national title game appearance since 2002 and it's not yet known if head coach Mario Cristobal can sustain the success the Hurricanes managed to make this year. But fans were still interested in watching because Miami had fallen from its throne and was looking to emerge from the crowd of mediocrity.

The 2026 title game was a true matchup of unorthodox opponents. You could consider it akin to someone like Arizona State entering the NCAA Tournament as a No. 1 seed and taking down a Michigan State that squeaked in as a First Four 11-seed in the national title game.

The unusualness of Indiana vs. Miami piqued the interest of fans around the country and that was reflected in ESPN's metrics. That kind of matchup may not be an every year occurrence, but the new landscape of the sport makes it ripe for more teams like Indiana to participate in the CFP in the near future.

Football is football and when there's a good narrative to follow, the fans will watch without fail.