It’s not the Super Bowl, but in Big Sky country the annual Brawl of the Wild college football game between in-state rivals Montana and Montana State is the next best thing.
On November 23, the Montana State Bobcats beat the Montana Grizzlies at Bobcat Stadium. Now, the TV ratings are in, and as usual the numbers are staggering.
In the Butte-Bozeman market, KBZK-TV, the CBS affiliate owned by the E.W. Scripps Co., drew a 33.9 rating and 67.1 share for the Brawl of the Wild, according to Comscore, which provides local audience measurement for Scripps. That means that more than two-thirds of the televisions in use at the time in the market were watching the game.
“It’s the largest sporting event every year in Montana,” Brian Lawlor, president of Scripps Sports, told Barrett Media.
“It’s massive out there and in many of those states, there’s no professional sports team,” Lawlor said. “So there’s no pro sports team in Montana and no pro sports team in Idaho. So when we broadcast their college football games, the audiences are huge and the Saturday before Thanksgiving is always Montana-Montana State.”
In addition to the Butte-Bozeman market, Scripps aired the game in four other Montana markets. Those stations averaged a 32.2 rating among adults 18 plus, and reached 109,092 households in the state.
Montana has been playing Montana State since 1897, making it one of the oldest rivalries in NCAA Division 1 football.. The game had been commonly known as the Cat-Griz game, or the Griz-Cat game, depending on where one lives or where one attended college.
In 1997, the game started to be promoted as The Brawl of the Wild. The winner of the The Brawl of the Wild takes possession of the Great Divide Trophy, which received that name because the schools are on opposite sides of the continental divide. Montana leads the series with 74 wins. Montana State was victorious 43 times and there have been five ties.
This year, Montana State won 34-11 as Adam Jones from Missoula ran for 197 yards and two touchdowns. The team finished its regular season undefeated at 12-0 and 8-0 in the Big Sky Conference. The victory helped the Bobcats earn the No. 1 seed in the upcoming FCS playoffs..
Scripps stations aired the Brawl of the Wild in several markets outside Montana including Tucson, Arizona, where it drew a 0.34 rating on KWBA. In Phoenix, the game was watched by 5,188 viewers on KASW, The game also appeared in Santa Barbara, California, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Denver, Colorado.
In total Scripps stations drew an audience of 129,753 viewers, including 116,720 in Montana alone.
Fans also tuned in to pre-game and post-game shows. The post game show for Montana-Montana State drew 57,455 adults 18 plus in Montana, the highest of the season.
Scripps launched its sports division in 2022 as cord-cutting made cable a less-attractive option for teams and leagues. Scripps has the WNBA and the National Women’s Soccer League on its Ion national network. Scripps stations in Las Vegas, Utah and Florida have the local TV rights to the NHL teams in those markets.
As it pursues more deals with big league teams, college sports in out-of-the way regions remain important.
“With these small conferences in places that don’t have pro sports, it seems like their college teams mean everything,” Lawlor notes.
When Montana State played U.C. Davis for the Big Sky championship, Scripps got a 28 rating across the state.
“In those markets, there are great rivalries and so much passion,” Lawlor said. “And the facts that we put that on over-the-air broadcast television, it’s a big deal. And we get some of the best numbers in the county.”
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
