where Oklahoma was ranked #3 in the nation and Utah #20, ESPN prime slot, would the TV rating be comparable--absolutely.

Now would Utah travel as many to Dallas for the game, probably not. And that is where BYU's national fan base lifts them. The number of BYU fans is unlikely to really have an effect on the TV ratings. We are talking about a strong fan base, but one that is nowhere near the size of ND's, Oklahoma's, Texas, USC, Florida etc....

But TV ratings, with all other things equal, yes.

Again, show me an Oklahoma game on ESPN, where they were a top 5 team with a chance for a national title and playing a top 20 team, that was rated lower than the BYU game.

I have not been able to find one, but maybe you can.

BYU's TV ratings have not been great this past decade. If every single Mormon in the country tuned into watch BYU's game, it would still draw considerably less than the BSU and Virginia Tech game which had nearly 10 million eyes. Regarding BYU, there are 6.1 million Mormons in the USA. So how many of them actually watch sports, maybe half if we are being generous (would say that about any group), and how many of that half are actually BYU fans? If we are being very, very generous you probably have 2-3 million LDS fans. So how many Non-LDS fans does BYU have, I know they are out there but are they there in significant numbers?

So yes, considering the circumstances and the ratings of Oklahoma's other games that season, even as the losses were piling up, I think a lot of top 20 schools could have pulled that rating and even better paired up against Oklahoma.

You don't agree, and that is your prerogative. Maybe you should start another thread saying so.