"The ESPN hype machine worked": SEC fans blame TV network on finding Colorado over Georgia in list of most watched teams for 2023

Colorado was one of the most popular teams to watch in 2023. The Nielsen ratings for the most watched teams of the 2023 season have been revealed and alongside national brands like Alabama, Michigan and Ohio State, Colorado. Well, surprising that is, if you are a time traveler from 2022 and you find yourself trying to understand how a 1-11 team has attracted that much attention in one year.

However, if you have lived through 2023 with the rest of us, by now you probably know that Prime himself, Deion Sanders, arrived in Boulder in the 2022 off-season. In doing so, he completely changed the Buffaloes, at least marketing-wise if not quite athletically.

Spearheaded by a Week 1 upset over the 2022 CFP finalists, the TCU Horned Frogs, and Sanders gravitas stealing the show, the Buffs became a national phenomenon. Even when things started going south after Week 4, national interest didn't wain. National networks like ESPN and Fox Sports kept traveling to Boulder to cover the latest on the Buffs. Some sections of college football even reveled in seeing them fall from grace.

Some fans think that the amount of attention Deion Sanders and the Buffs garnered was uncalled for, and that the fault for so much attention being set on a mediocre program falls with the networks:

Some fans couldn't get over the fact that Colorado was above Georgia:

Others couldn't understand how the team with the Heisman trophy winner wasn't higher on the list:

UCLA fans are appaled at the current state of their program:

For some, it's understandable the Crimson Tide is at the top of the list, given that there isn't much else to do in Alabama. But hey! They're more popular than Auburn, and that's what matters:

Are we moving to a Power Two scheme? Some people certainly think so:

Texas is the second richest state in the Union, but somehow only one of its schools made this list:

Colorado over Georgia? A matter of business

If this season told us anything, is that the team that attracts the most attention is not necessarily the better team but the one that markets itself better. Networks take that into account and hence go with the most "viral" or "hyped" teams. The question, in the long run, is how this will affect the balance of power of the conferences.

We have gotten glimpses of it already, with teams like Florida State stuck in the ACC and underperforming in the recruitment game against giants of the now Power Two conferences (SEC and Big Ten). For Colorado, the question is, can Deion Sanders turn their business success into sporting success?