Hold onto your seat.

I’m about to give you some numbers that will confound and amuse you.

On October 1^st, Justin Connolly, Senior VP of ESPN Programming over College Networks, spoke to the Rotary Club of Birmingham about the new SEC Network.  He said the SEC Network has been the most successful launch of a cable network in the history of television. (Oprah, eat your heart out)

Then he gave some numbers that made the audience break into spontaneous applause.

We’ve always known that Birmingham is a great college football town–we just didn’t know how great.

According to Mr. Connolly, in 2013 our Birmingham market had the highest college TV ratings of any city in America.  But Birmingham’s numbers are startling:

2013 ESPN Television College Football DMA Average Ratings

Birmingham          9.22
Greenville                  4.91
Knoxville                    4.38
New Orleans              4.28
Nashville                    3.33
Memphis                    3.29
Columbus Ohio         3.27
Jacksonville                3.26
Louisville                    3.22
Atlanta                        3.19

It may not be surprising that Birmingham is number one.  But Birmingham’s ratings are almost twice as high as the next market.

Mr. Connolly then reinforced these numbers by saying “Birmingham is the only market in the past three years where the SEC Championship has out rated the Super Bowl.“  It doesn’t happen anywhere else in the country.

We can only draw one conclusion from these numbers.

Birmingham is the greatest college football city in America!

Let’s turn Birmingham around.  Click here to sign up for our newsletter.  There’s power in numbers. (Opt out at any time)

David Sher is the publisher of ComebackTown, a co-founder of Buzz12 Advertising Agency and co-CEO of AmSher Collection Agency.  He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).