The advent of Urban Meyer’s head coaching tenure at Ohio State brought about a well-documented uptick in the program’s national recruiting pedigree, but the exposure has boosted the Buckeyes in other avenues as well.

Not only has Ohio State begun to best the dominant southern powers on the recruiting trail, but the advantage has reared its head in week-to-week TV ratings in recent years.

For the past two seasons, the Buckeyes have led the country in number of weeks with the most-viewed game in college football, with five games topping the charts in 2019 and six the year before, according to data from SportsWatchMedia.

These numbers don’t include national championship games, as there is no other college football game that it competes against for ratings on that night. Days in which multiple bowl games take place are treated as their own week.

In 2019, Ohio State topped the rating charts with matchups against Nebraska, Michigan State, Penn State and Michigan, as well as its Fiesta Bowl loss to Clemson, which was the second most-viewed game of the season at 21.15 million viewers.

*Nielsen rating data not available for ESPNEWS, SEC Network, CBS Sports Network, Big Ten Network and Pac-12 Network before 2017.

LSU had four chart-topping matchups, not including their national title win against Clemson.

The Buckeyes beat out Alabama in this category the year prior, as their games against TCU, Penn State, Purdue, Maryland, Michigan and their Rose Bowl win against Washington were all the most watched games that week.

The drop off is sharp for the Buckeyes in the several preceding years as Meyer built his legacy in Columbus, Ohio.

Ohio State had half as many chart-toppers in 2017 and ’16, and during their national championship run in 2014, the Buckeyes did not have the most-watched game in any week until they defeated Alabama in the college football playoff.

However, the Buckeyes’ title win against Oregon is the second most-watched college football game since the beginning of the BCS era in 1998. The game drew 34.1 million viewers, a mark that has not been topped since, and stands behind only the 2006 National Championship between Texas and USC, which brought in 35.6 million.

In 2012, Meyer’s first season with the Buckeyes, Ohio State averaged 4.59 million viewers in the eight games for which there is TV rating data. In 2019, the Buckeyes averaged 7.4 million viewers in the 12 games with data.

This comparison can be a bit misleading because the Buckeyes were barred from the postseason in 2012, but even if you compare the regular season ratings in each year, the Buckeyes averaged nearly a million more viewers per game in 2019.

Fox acquired rights to Big Ten games in a joint deal with ESPN after the 2016 season, but it was the last two times Ohio State played its rivalry game on ABC that the annual Buckeye-Wolverine contest took huge strides in jumping the Iron Bowl in the ratings.

In 2013 and ’14, the Ohio State-Michigan game underperformed Auburn-Alabama by four and five million viewers, and in 2012, the game was watched by seven million less people than Notre Dame-Michigan.

However, the Buckeyes had the most-watched rivalry game in 2015, and the next year’s overtime thriller against Michigan garnered 16.4 million sets of eyes –– more than eight million more than the Auburn-Alabama matchup.

Since 2016, The Game has garnered an average of 12 million viewers each year, outperforming the Iron Bowl as the most watched regular season finale every season except 2017.

The SEC Championship Game has retained its perch as the most-watched conference title contest for each season since 2012, which proves it is still generally the most popular league in the sport.

But Ohio State’s rise in national prominence has given it not only a seat at the table when it comes to the biggest draws in college football, but oftentimes from week-to-week, the very head of the table itself.