The College Football Playoff has some viewer momentum going into this week's semifinals.
Last week's quarterfinals had a 14% increase from last season. According to ESPN and Nielsen, the four matchups averaged 19.3 million viewers, including the three most-watched games of the season.
The CFP is averaging 14.4 million through the quarterfinals, which is up 3% from last year. Six of the eight games are in the top 10 of most-viewed this season.
Top-seeded Indiana's 38-3 rout of No. 9 Alabama in the Rose Bowl averaged 24.9 million viewers, making it the most-watched College Football Playoff game since Michigan's win over Washington in the 2024 title game drew 25 million.
Overall, it was the 12th highest-viewed game in the 12 years of the CFP and a 13% jump from last year's Rose Bowl between Ohio State and Oregon. The audience for the Hoosiers’ first trip to the Rose Bowl since the 1967 season peaked at 25.6 million.
No. 10 Miami's 24-14 victory over second-seeded Ohio State at the Cotton Bowl on New Year's Eve averaged 19 million and peaked at 21.6 million. It was a 37% jump between last season's Dec. 31 quarterfinal between Penn State and Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl.
Sixth-seeded Mississippi's 39-34 comeback win over No. 2 Georgia drew 18.7 million with a peak audience of 21.4 million. It was a 18% increase from last year, when the Notre Dame-Georgia game was moved to Jan. 2 after a deadly terror attack in New Orleans the morning of New Year's Day.
No. 5 Oregon's 23-0 shutout of No. 4 Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl averaged 15.9 million, an 8% drop from last season's first quarterfinal of New Year's Day between Texas and Arizona State in the Peach Bowl. The Orange Bowl, though, was the eighth most-watched game of the season.
This is the last year ESPN will have all the quarterfinal games. The Warner Bros. Discovery channels — TBS, TNT and truTV — will have two quarterfinals beginning next year as well as a semifinal game.
How much of an impact last week's losses by Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State will have on the ratings remains to be seen. According to Nielsen, the Crimson Tide were college football's most-watched team in the regular season, averaging 8.49 million. The regular-season averages did not include conference championship games.
Georgia was third (7.48 million) and Ohio State was fourth (6.57 million). Texas, which didn't make the 12-team field, was the second most-watched (7.55 million).
Ole Miss is the most-viewed team remaining in the field. It was 12th during the regular season, averaging 4.48 million. The SEC had 13 of their 16 schools ranked in the top 20. Miami was 19th (3.43 million).
The Rebels and Hurricanes open the semifinals on Thursday at the Fiesta Bowl.
Oregon was 20th (3.29 million) and Indiana 24th (2.70). The two teams meet on Friday at the Peach Bowl.
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Ohio State prepares to run a play against Miami during the first half of the Cotton Bowl College Football Playoff quarterfinal game Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal agent shot and killed a Minneapolis motorist when she allegedly tried to run over law enforcement officers during an immigration crackdown in the city, authorities said Wednesday.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot the woman in her vehicle in a residential neighborhood in Minneapolis, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
The shooting marks a dramatic escalation of the latest in a series of immigration enforcement operations in major American cities under the Trump administration.
The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul have been on edge since DHS announced Tuesday that it had launched the operation, with 2,000 agents and officers expected to participate in the crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents.
A large throng of protesters gathered at the scene after Wednesday's shooting, where they vented their anger at the local and federal officers who were there, including Gregory Bovino, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Patrol official who has been the face of crackdowns in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere.
In a scene similar to the Los Angeles and Chicago crackdowns, bystanders heckled the officers and blew whistles that have become ubiquitous during the crackdowns.
“Shame! Shame! Shame!” and “ICE out of Minnesota!” they loudly chanted from behind the police tape.
After the shooting, Mayor Jacob Frey said immigration agents were “causing chaos in our city.”
“We are demanding ICE leave the city and state immediately. We stand rock solid with our immigrant and refugee communities," Frey said on social media.
The area where the shooting occurred is a modest neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis, just a few blocks from some of the oldest immigrant markets in the area and a mile (1.6 kilometers) from where George Floyd was killed by police in 2020.
The Immigration Defense Network, a coalition of groups serving immigrants in Minnesota, held a training session Tuesday night for about 100 people who are willing to hit the streets to monitor the federal enforcement.
“I feel like I'm an ordinary person, and I have the ability do something so I need to do it,” Mary Moran told KMSP-TV.
Dell'Orto reported from St. Paul, Minnesota. Associated Press reporter Ed White in Detroit contributed.
Law enforcement officers attend to the scene of the shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
People protest as law enforcement officers attend to the scene of the shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
A bullet hole is seen in the windshield as law enforcement officers attend to the scene of the shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
Law enforcement officers attend to the scene of the shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
A bullet hole is seen in the windshield as law enforcement officers attend to the scene of the shooting involving federal law enforcement agents, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
FILE - Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appears before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
Federal law enforcement officers stand near a roadblock at Portland Avenue and East 32nd Street, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, after reports of a shooting involving federal agents in Minneapolis, where immigration enforcement has been conducting a major crackdown. (AP Photo/Tim Sullivan)
Federal law enforcement officers stand near a roadblock at Portland Avenue and East 32nd Street, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, after reports of a shooting involving federal agents in Minneapolis, where immigration enforcement has been conducting a major crackdown. (AP Photo/Tim Sullivan)
