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Michigan and Notre Dame helped ESPN net its highest-watched college football Saturday of all time. (Courtney Sacco | AnnArbor.com)

ANN ARBOR -- Michigan and Notre Dame played in front of the largest crowd to ever watch an NCAA football game Saturday night in Ann Arbor.

And it also helped ESPN set a new benchmark for television ratings on a football Saturday.

Michigan's 41-30 win over Notre Dame drew an average of 8.65 million viewers in prime time on ESPN, and was the cornerstone game in what turned out to be the network's most-viewed college football regular season Saturday of all time.

According to an ESPN release, the Michigan-Notre Dame game drew a United States' television rating of 5.3, and was the weekend's most-viewed non-NFL sporting event -- regardless of network.

Also, the game delivered an "average viewership that is 152 percent higher than" any other network's most-viewed game on Saturday.

In contrast, Michigan's Cowboys Classic loss to Alabama to kickoff the 2012 season drew an average of 7.9 million viewers. A year ago, NBC recorded a record 6.4 million viewers for the Michigan-Notre Dame game in South Bend.

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