USFL Ratings Rise Despite Going Head-To-Head With NFL Draft

The USFL spent the weekend going up against the behemoth that is the NFL Draft, and the ratings reports show the USFL did just fine.

It's true, as Fox broadcast a pair of games Saturday, the third day of the Draft, with the Tampa Bay Bandits and Houston Gamblers even going head-to-head with the NFL's offseason marquee event. That game alone drew an average of 825,000 viewers, per Sports TV Ratings.

Meanwhile, the evening game between the Birmingham Stallions and New Orleans Breakers did even better, drawing an average crowd of more than 1.4 million. Some NBA playoff games don't even do that well. And as our Bobby Burack wrote, ratings for the NBA playoffs are on the rise.

Or how about this? Ratings for USFL games in Week 3 were actually up 6% over Week 2, despite the fact that, again, games this past weekend were being played while NFL Draft coverage dominated the sports landscape.

This all leads us to a couple of reminders:

1.) America loves football, and not just in the fall.

2.) In its first season, the USFL is already reaching its goals in terms of generating interest.