With new ACC viewership model, where do UNC, Duke, NC State football stack up?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- ACC shifts TV payouts to a 60-40 split, allocating 60% to viewership incentives.
- Conference ties 75% of that pool to football ratings and 25% to basketball.
- Teams earn viewership pay based on season aggregates; networks and Nielsen affect metrics.
College football has always rewarded winning. But in today’s ACC, it also pays, quite literally, to be watchable.
That’s been part of the calculus with Bill Belichick’s arrival at North Carolina — a move that promised to bring national intrigue and television attention to Chapel Hill.
“It’s a little like the Deion (Sanders) thing at Colorado,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said of Belichick, per ESPN. “He grabs your attention. It’s made for television.”
But since North Carolina’s Labor Day season opener against TCU averaged 6.6 million viewers — peaking at more than 8 million — the Tar Heels have fallen behind their ACC competitors in viewership. According to an analysis by the N&O, UNC ranks fifth this season in total viewership at roughly 13.1 million through Week 10, behind Miami, Florida State, Clemson and Georgia Tech.
This slide comes at a particularly bad time for the Tar Heels. This summer, the ACC implemented a new viewership incentive model as part of its revenue-distribution plan for member institutions. Under the new system, teams that compete in high-rating matchups and attract larger television audiences stand to earn more from the conference’s media rights deal — a change that will reward programs driving national interest.
The new initiative was rolled out as part of the settlement between the ACC and Clemson and Florida State after those schools filed lawsuits against the league. After decades of equal distribution, the league will distribute 60% of TV revenues based on a rolling five-year, weighted viewership formula based on football and men’s basketball metrics.
Through Week 10, Miami leads the conference with roughly 30.1 million total viewers, according to publicly available data. UNC ranks the highest of the three Triangle schools — well above Duke at 5.7 million and further ahead of N.C. State at 3.7 million — and can thank roughly half of its season viewership to the TCU game.
North Carolina’s viewership for the opener alone ranks ahead of at least 10 ACC schools’ numbers through Week 10. It also single-handedly topped viewership for the entirety of the Tar Heels’ 2024 season, which totaled approximately 6.01 million.
Where does UNC stand?
According to ESPN Senior Vice President of Research Flora Kelly, North Carolina’s season-opening loss to TCU marked the most-watched Labor Day college football game in nine years and saw a 48% uptick over last year’s slot: Boston College v. Florida State.
Belichick’s arrival in Chapel Hill promised must-see TV. In August, North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham spoke with optimism about UNC’s viewership potential.
“They’ve given us what the percentages are going to be over the years,” Cunningham said. “You can estimate based on what you think your viewership is going to be. We’ve done that. We’ve run some preliminary stuff … We will get more money because of our media interest as we go forward.”
North Carolina has already surpassed its performance last season. But since blowout losses have mounted and interest has waned, UNC’s early-season hype has largely failed to translate into sustained viewership. In a conference where viewership now directly affects revenue, that’s a bigger problem.
After playing games against Charlotte and Richmond — broadcast on ESPN+ and ACCN, respectively, and not subject to Nielsen ratings — North Carolina recorded its second-best mark so far against UCF on Sept. 20, garnering roughly 2 million viewers. Since then, the numbers have remained low: the Tar Heels’ 38-10 loss to Clemson on Oct. 4 drew 1.86 million viewers during ESPN’s noon slot.
The slide is structural and situational, as on-field performance, the opponent and TV slots all play a factor. Front Office Sports reported in July that ESPN was primed to broadcast “eight, if not 10” of North Carolina’s games this fall. But UNC’s 2-3 start — which saw North Carolina get outscored 120-33 by its P4 opponents — cooled ESPN’s appetite for Belichick’s squad.
The Tar Heels’ matchup against a ranked Virginia team on Oct. 25 was picked up by ACC Network, and thus not Nielsen-rated. Upcoming games against Stanford and Wake Forest will be broadcast on The CW Network.
And even as UNC’s progress has finally started to show up on the scoreboard, it’s not being reflected in the viewership metrics — at least so far. North Carolina’s 21-18 loss to Cal on Oct. 17 drew 1.58 million viewers, while the team’s 27-10 victory over Syracuse last Friday drew 983,000, a season low — both broadcast on ESPN.
Context matters: the Cal game kicked off at 10:30 p.m. ET, and the Syracuse game overlapped with the World Series and Halloween. Overall, Week 10 was a down week across networks — the first time since Week 6 without a single game topping 7.85 million viewers — likely due to postseason baseball’s pull and the ESPN blackout on YouTube TV. World Series Game 6, shown on FOX head-to-head against ESPN’s UNC-Syracuse broadcast, drew 17.7 million viewers.
How do N.C. State and Duke fare?
Duke ranks second in the Triangle and No. 10 overall in the ACC with 5.7 million viewers.
Blue Devils football coach Manny Diaz said “you have to” factor in the viewership incentive model when evaluating non-conference scheduling.
“You’re looking for opportunities now to be seen,” Diaz said in a press conference before Duke’s September game against N.C. State. “Which, one, is good for our program anyways. We want to be in those games and we want to be able to show recruits that we’re playing on big stages — whatever that is. Whether that’s week zero or going abroad or, you know, we’ll go play on Mars.”
Duke’s most-watched game so far took place in the nonconference slate when the Blue Devils hosted Illinois on Sept. 6, averaging 2.18 million viewers. The team’s second-most watched game came against Georgia Tech on Oct. 18, with 1.7 million viewers.
“I think everyone understands now that we don’t say this is a business under our breath anymore,” Diaz said. “We recognize that this is a legit business. And so, to me, whatever is good for the business of Duke football or Duke athletics or college football in general — everyone’s got to be on board to do those things.”
N.C. State is last in the state and second-worst in the ACC with 3.7 million viewers this season. Its best game came in Week 3 when it received 1.2 million viewers for its 34-24 win at Wake Forest to open the ACC slate. The Wolfpack ranks 15th out of all ACC teams after playing four games on non-rated channels ACC Network, ESPN+ and Peacock.
Despite hosting a ranked matchup picked up by ESPN2, N.C. State’s Week 10 numbers didn’t provide much of a bump. Its 48-36 win over then-No. 8 Georgia Tech averaged 604,000 viewers, lower than two other games also broadcast on ESPN2. The game, however, took place at the same time as Game 7 of the World Series, which was the most-watched MLB game in 34 years, pulling 27 million viewers.
N.C. State’s 35-31 win over Virginia in Week 2 garnered 659,000, 55,000 viewers more than Saturday’s game. Approximately 663,000 people watched its 45-33 loss at Duke in Week 4, a gain of 59,000 viewers.
“I think Commissioner (Jim) Phillips took a big step forward by trying to create a creative answer to something,” N.C. State Athletic Director Boo Corrigan said in August. “It’s in our wheelhouse. We have the opportunity to do that to get better slots. The beauty of football, I don’t know that we all love this, but the 10-day window, the six-day window.”
Corrigan said it would be nice if schools knew when every game would be, referencing the flex windows. This is when conferences wait to announce kickoff times and TV designations for the sake of matchup interest. He noted it can be inconvenient, but the current setup allows for the league to get ABC and ESPN games and ones in prime time.
“A lot of it’s in front of us,” Corrigan said. “What opportunities do we have? We’ve got a Thursday night game, we’ve got a Friday night game. There are some windows there for us to really take advantage.”
Corrigan said N.C State has a chance to improve its viewership in every sport based on the attendance, gameday environment and the level of competition.
“Does that lead to better TV windows? Yes, it does,” Corrigan said. “I think the best thing we can do, really, is focus on who we are.”
“We’re a proud member of the ACC, love being in the ACC and believe it’s a highly-competitive conference on a national level with great teams.”
Viewership formula explained + top ACC teams so far
Under the new structure — approved by the presidents and chancellors of the member universities — the ACC will divide its TV revenue 60-40. Sixty percent is distributed based on the viewership formula, while the remaining 40% is split equally among member institutions.
Football viewership accounts for 75% of the viewerships-based share, with the rest (25%) determined by men’s basketball viewership.
The conference will include all games in its model, regardless of location or ACC control. ACC Network games will also count, though their ratings — measured by ComScore — are not publicly available.
Networks typically pay Nielsen, a global audience measurement firm, to track viewership. But ESPN limits what is measured, instead using ComScore to track viewership data for its college conference networks such as the SEC Network, ACC Network and Longhorn Network. Financial distribution will be based on aggregate numbers obtained by the ACC following the conclusion of football and basketball seasons.
So who’s poised to gain the most? Miami, Florida State, Clemson and Georgia Tech lead the conference in overall season viewership thus far.
The Hurricanes and Seminoles are the only schools to surpass 20 million viewers. Roughly half of FSU’s viewership came from its Week 1 matchup against Alabama, which garnered 10.7 million viewers.
Clemson has recorded 18.14 million this season, with 10.5 million coming from its opening game against LSU.
UNC is the only other team to surpass 10 million viewers, with the remaining institutions recording fewer than 9 million this fall.
Entering Week 9, the ACC averaged 2.8 million viewers for 34 Nielsen-rated games across ESPN networks and the CW, according to Sports Business Journal. Those marks are up 98% from the same point last season.
Currently, the ACC only trails the SEC in average viewers across Nielsen-measured networks. The SEC is averaging 4.7 million through Week 10, with the ACC sitting at 2.3 million — ahead of the Big Ten (1.9 million) and Big 12 (1.4 million).
This story was originally published November 6, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
