The Cougars delivered another Thursday night increase on ESPN, though not as much as last time. In other news, the NHRA had another decline on Fox Sports 1 last weekend, and the World Cup of Hockey final put up small numbers on ESPN and ESPN2.

Thursday’s Connecticut/Houston college football game had a 0.9 final rating and 1.3 million viewers on ESPN, up 5% in viewership from Miami/Cincinnati last year, ratings for which were not available (1.3M) but down 18% and 23%, respectively, from Texas Tech/Oklahoma State in 2014 (1.1, 1.8M). Both of Houston’s Thursday night games this season have increased over last year. On Fox Sports 1, Kansas/Texas Tech had a 0.3 and 513,000 — down 50% in ratings and 42% in viewership from UCLA/Arizona State in ’14 (0.6, 883K). There was no comparable window last year.

NHRA series racing from St. Louis had a 0.2 final rating and 273,000 viewers on Fox Sports 1 last Sunday, down a tick in ratings and 20% in viewership from last year (0.2, 339K) and down a tick and 44%, respectively, from 2014 (0.3, 488K), both on ESPN2. Excluding qualifying telecasts, it was the second-least watched NHRA window of the season — barely topping Charlotte the previous week (272K).

The Canada/Europe World Cup of Hockey final scored 494,000 viewers for Tuesday’s Game 1 on ESPN and 296,000 for Thursday’s clinching Game 2 on ESPN2. Comparable figures in 2004 were not available. To put the numbers in perspective, NBCSN averaged 378,000 viewers for regular season NHL games last season.

(Numbers via Programming Insider 9/28, 9/30, ShowBuzz Daily 9/27, 9/30)