If this latest 60 Minutes profile of the new University of Colorado football coach -- the CBS news magazine's second on him in less than a year -- isn't enough to indicate it, Deion Sanders and his dramatic, sudden reclamation of the storied CU program is the story of the year so far in college football.
And for a third consecutive weekend, Sanders' Buffalos engaged in a stirring, storm-the-field game-of-the-week victory, this time with Sanders' son, Heisman Trophy candidate quarterback Shedeur Sanders successfully leading a desperate 11-point overtime comeback win over Colorado State.
Averaging 9.3 million viewers for ESPN, according to Nielsen, the showdown -- which didn't kick off until 10 p.m. ET -- was not only the most watched college football game on Saturday, consider also that at 2:30 a.m. ET, more than 8 million viewers were still tuned in.
It was the fifth most watched college football regular-season telecast on ESPN ever. Last season, the Saturday late-night college football time slot averaged around 1.7 million viewers for the Disney-owned cable network.
The game's impressive TV ratings masked what could be a disturbing counter-narrative for CBS, NBC and Fox, which just kicked off a seven-year, $8 billion deal to broadcast Big Ten Conference games.
Fox featured Big Ten rivals Penn State and Illinois in its premiere Big Noon Saturday slot on Saturday and averaged only 3.2 million viewers.
Two weeks earlier, the Sanders family and Colorado began their Cinderella season with a 45-42 upset win over last year's College Football Championship runner-up, TCU, on College Football Saturday, delivering more than twice the audience (7.26 million viewers).
Fortunately for Fox, it can keep riding the Sanders gravy train for as long as it lasts -- the No. 19 Buffalos are slated to return to the Big Noon Saturday 12 p.m. ET slot on Saturday, Sept. 30 when they face a vaunted Pac-12 rival, the fifth-ranked USC Trojans and last year's Heisman winner, quarterback Caleb Williams.
As for this coming Saturday, ABC gets the 3:30 p.m ET showdown between the Buffalos and another top-rated Pac-12 rival, Oregon, with Fox's Big Noon Saturday matchup featuring No. 16 Oklahoma visiting Cincinnati.
Meanwhile, CBS is hoping to wring a solid primetime audience performance at 7:30 p.m. ET with a Big Ten matchup featuring No. 24 Iowa visiting Penn State.
If that game bombs, look for sports media pundits to start kicking the goal posts on that big Big Ten TV deal.
