First, the results of last week’s predictions:
— NFL preseason, Cardinals-Raiders. Prediction: 4.3; final rating: 4.6.
— NFL preseason, Seahawks-Chargers. Prediction: 2.9; final rating: 3.0.
— IndyCar Series racing from Sonoma. Prediction: 0.3; final rating: 0.5.
— ArenaBowl 27, Sharks-SaberCats. Prediction: 0.3; final rating: 0.3.
— LLWS, U.S. and World Championship. Predictions: 2.3 and 2.6; final ratings: N/A.
— PGA FedEx Cup, final round of The Barclays. Prediction: 2.6; final rating: N/A.
This week’s predictions:
College football, #20 Wisconsin-#3 Alabama (8 p.m. Saturday, ABC). Highlighting the Week 1 college football schedule is the return of Saturday Night Football, featuring always high-profile Alabama facing top 25 opponent Wisconsin. The last time Alabama played in ABC’s Saturday night opener, 2012 against Michigan, the rating was a 4.8. Even if not quite to that level, look for this year’s game to comfortably top last year’s 3.8 for Florida State-Oklahoma State. Prediction: 4.5.
College football, Louisville-#6 Auburn (3:30 p.m. Saturday, CBS). Freed from U.S. Open commitments, CBS begins its college football coverage two weeks earlier than usual this season. Expect Auburn’s opener against Louisville to deliver solid numbers, even if somewhat below last year’s SEC on CBS average of 4.0. Prediction: 3.3.
College football, Texas-#11 Notre Dame (7:30 p.m. Saturday, NBC). NBC opens its slate of Notre Dame games with a primetime matchup with Texas Saturday night. With Notre Dame just out of the top ten and Texas still a major college football brand, look for ratings to soar past last year’s afternoon opener against Rice (1.3). Last year’s primetime Notre Dame games drew ratings of 2.7 (against Michigan) and 1.9 (against Purdue). Prediction: 2.3.
College football, #15 Arizona State-Texas A&M (7 p.m. Saturday, ESPN). Airing opposite Wisconsin-Alabama and Texas-Notre Dame, ESPN figures to see a drop in ratings for Saturday’s neutral site clash between Arizona State and Texas A&M. Last year’s comparable Clemson-Georgia game had a 2.3 in an earlier timeslot. Prediction: 1.9.
College football, Ohio State-Virginia Tech (8 p.m. Monday, ESPN). ESPN’s annual Labor Day college football game features the defending champion Buckeyes facing Virginia Tech in a rematch of last year’s upset. Expect ratings to not only top last year’s Miami-Louisville game (2.3), but to rank as the highest for the Labor Day matchup since Boise State-Virginia Tech in 2010 (6.3). Prediction: 4.6.
NASCAR Sprint Cup racing from Darlington (7 p.m. Sunday, NBC). NASCAR returns to the NBC broadcast network on Sunday with racing from Darlington. It goes almost without saying that Sunday’s race will improve over last year, when Darlington was run on a Saturday night in April (3.6) and the Labor Day weekend race aired on cable network ESPN (3.2). Expect ratings to be the highest for any NASCAR telecast since Fontana back in March (4.3). Prediction: 4.2.
PGA Tour Deutsche Bank Championship, third and final rounds (3 p.m. Sunday and Monday, NBC). In a strong year for golf on TV, ratings for the Deutsche Bank Championship should easily top last year’s 1.5 and 1.7, both of which were down double-digits. Prediction: 2.1 and 3.0.
U.S. Open tennis, round of sixteen (11 a.m. Sunday, ESPN2). Dropping way down the dial from CBS to ESPN2, one would expect the U.S. Open to see steep declines this weekend. However, the potential of a Serena Williams-Madison Keys match should mitigate the damage — at least on Sunday. CBS drew a 1.2 for the comparable Sunday telecast last year. Prediction: 0.9.
Paulsen is the founder of Sports Media Watch and a contributor for Sporting News. Follow him on Twitter @Paulsen_SMW.