Fox Sports is happy over increased ratings and viewership for its college football package which involves Big 12, Pac-12 and Conference USA. Thanks to games like Michigan at Utah which opened FS1’s college football season and the Big Ten Championship on Fox led to a combined average viewership increase of 12% in 2015 as compared to the year before.

And on Fox, games on Saturday afternoons and evenings averaged a 1.9 rating, up 19% from 2014’s 1.6. The 2015 viewership averaged 3.0 million per game, an increase of 15% from 2.6 million in 2014.

The Big Ten Championship on Fox last Saturday night scored garnering a very good audience of 9.8 million viewers and a 5.7 household rating with an 11 share. It beat the ACC Championship on ABC in viewership by a whopping 42% (9.8 million viewers to 6.9 million) and in the ratings by 39% in the ratings (5.7 to 4.1). It’s one of the reasons why Fox covets the Big Ten so highly and hopes to get part of the football contract.

Having Notre Dame on Fox also paid dividends. The Fighting Irish visit to Stanford on November 28 was the most-watched regular season game with a 4.3/11 number and 7.3 million viewers.

On FS1, the aforementioned Michigan-Utah game made history for the network becoming its most-watched and highest-rated college football contest with a 1.73 rating and 2.8 million people watching.

So Fox Sports has to feel good about its package of games, but it feels it’s missing a piece of the puzzle without regular Big Ten games. It’s hoping to have that in place when the 2017 season begins.

[Fox Sports]