CARDINALS

U of L-FSU draws big ratings for ESPN

Jeff Greer

Louisville Courier Journal

Louisville'sTerell Floyd breaks up a pass intended for Florida State's Rashad Greene. The Cards allowed 401 passing yards and 173 rushing yards. The Seminoles went on to beat Louisville, 42-31. Oct. 30, 2014 By Matt Stone/The C-J

The University of Louisville football team's much-anticipated matchup with Florida State on Thursday night ended up being pretty popular on television, too.

The 42-31 FSU win drew a 3.5 overnight rating for ESPN, the network announced on Friday morning. That's the highest overnight rating for a college football game on ESPN this season.

It was also the ninth-highest overnight rating for an ESPN Thursday night game since at least 2000, the network said.

On ESPN's live-streaming app, WatchESPN, Louisville-FSU averaged 74,000 viewers a minute and had 366,000 unique viewers, which made it the second-largest audience ever for a regular-season college football game.

Louisville and Birmingham, Ala., led the local markets for the game, with Jacksonville, Orlando and West Palm Beach rounding out the top five.