Don't forget that the 2012 semi-final between FSU and Union was relegated to ESPNU. I believe 17 people watched that one on TV. Sarcasm aside, the estimated # of viewers was around 150,000, perhaps a quarter of the estimated viewers of most of the semi-final broadcasts of the last few years. Now moving a game from ESPN or ESPN2 to ESPNU meant a lot of people who perhaps would have watched did not, but moving one from ESPN to ESPN 2 will not cost more than a handful of viewers the chance to see the game, as ESPN2 is in virtually the same number of homes as is ESPN. At the beginning of the 2015/16 TV season ESPN was in 92.94 million homes versus 92.85 million for ESPN2, a difference of fewer than 100,000 homes. Based on the numbers of people who normally watch the final on Saturday night, this means there may be a few hundred people in the entire country who might have watched but will have no access. Other than perception, there stopped being a real difference between ESPN and ESPN2 years ago. That perception is the ONLY reason something like Monday Night Football remains on ESPN.
