Sept. 15, 2005

ATHENS, Ohio - ESPN2's telecast of last Friday's Pittsburgh at Ohio football game rated among the young college football season's best.

The 1.6 rating for the game equals 1,401,080 households and was the second-highest rated game last week on ESPN or ESPN2 behind only ESPN's South Carolina at Georgia telecast. The Pitt-Ohio game also ranks among the Top 15 most viewed regular season college football telecasts on ESPN2 since the network debuted in 1994.

Comparing the 1.6 rating to last year, ESPN2's 2004 average Friday night rating was 1.0. The 1.6 represents a nearly 62 percent increase over last year's Friday night average and ranks as the highest rated and most viewed Friday night game in ESPN2 history.

The Bobcats' win was the first under head coach Frank Solich and the first ever game on ESPN or ESPN2 at Peden Stadium. A home record crowd of 24,545 saw a Bobcats' 16-10 overtime win spurred by two interception returns for touchdowns by Dion Byrum. Byrum was honored this week as the Walter Camp Foundation Defense Player of the Week, the Football Writers Association of America Bronko Nagurski Defensive Player of the Week and the USA Today Player of the Week.

The MAC will have three additional ESPN2 telecasts this month with Bowling Green at Boise State (Sept. 21), Toledo at Fresno State (Sept. 27) and Cincinnati at Miami (Sept. 28).