The best Saturday lineup of the season, with 11 consecutive hours of showdowns in the SEC and Big Ten, generated the TV audience you would expect: Four games exceeded 5 million viewers, and seven topped the 4 million mark.

Only the season-opening weekend, which featured games across the Labor Day holiday, attracted more eyeballs.

Within the numbers from Week 5, there were trends worth noting.

1. CBS blew it

At the turn of the decade, CBS executives chose to end the network’s longstanding relationship with the SEC rather than pay roughly $300 million per year — a six-fold increase over the previous contract — for the rights to the conference’s No. 1 game each week.

ESPN gladly swooped in, adding the Game of the Week to its existing SEC inventory. Hoping to remain relevant, CBS turned a

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