When Notre Dame wrapped up an undefeated regular season and Alabama edged Georgia for the SEC title, assuring the two teams of a meeting at Sun Life Stadium for the national championship, more than a few ESPN bigwigs were undoubtedly ecstatic, dreaming of unprecedented numbers of eyeballs fixed on their network. Did their dreams become reality?

Yesterday, in our morning roundup of what happened the night before, we noted: “If you can’t park yourself in front of the TV for the World Series, what will you be willing to watch?” Well… a lot of other things, apparently.

You spent a lot of time this summer thinking about LeBron, and his potential place in history thanks to both his title and Olympics dominance. It was a summer of Phelps and Lochte and Federer and Murray and Felix Hernandez achieving perfection and (on a much darker note) Penn State sanctions. Summer might be a relative dead zone sports-wise, but you still had plenty of sporting matters on your mind. Then, the NFL came back and THRASHED THEM ALL.

As expected, last night’s NFL opener between the Cowboys and Giants drew monster ratings on NBC. Also as expected, Bill Clinton made sweet, sweet love to the podium during the Democratic National Convention, as a confused and slightly aroused nation looked on. The ratings, after the jump.

Spain entered the 88th minute of yesterday’s match against Croatia with a chance to be sent home in the group stage, and, at one moment or another, the entire country was watching.

Well, NBC Sports Network (FKA Versus) apparently has a long way to go to become the major player in the sports TV scene it set out to be. SportsBusiness Journal’s John Ourand reported yesterday on the nascent channel’s beginning spot on the ratings totem pole, and… it’s a low spot.

Say this for Tim Tebow: where he goes, eyeballs follow. And yesterday, the eyeballs of almost 42 million viewers watched Tebow’s Broncos pull off the 29-23 overtime upset. The game earned a 25.9 overall rating, and a 43 share of TVs that were turned on – numbers good enough that CBS proclaimed it the highest-rated Wild Card Weekend showdown in 24 years. And the rating for the end of the game, when Tebow threw his 80-yard game-winning TD pass? 31.6. We give up. AP photo, by Jack Dempsey

If you needed any more evidence of just how much the NFL rules everything in sports the world, consider this: nine of the 10 most-watched programs of the fall were NFL games. Stats like those are why you see dollar figures like this on TV rights deals. The lone non-NFL program to crack the top 10? That would be the Two and a Half Men season premiere. KUTCHEEERRRRR!

Given the immense hype surrounding yesterday’s Patriots-Broncos (or, more to the point, Brady-Tebow) matchup, you might think, “Man, everyone must have watched the game.” Well, not quite – the game was only broadcast in 79 percent of the country. But among those who could watch it, the numbers were enormous. The game earned a 19.5 rating and 36 share, easily topping the numbers for the same slot last year…and every NFL on CBS regular season game since 2007. That 2007 game? The undefeated Patriots-Colts matchup. Sure, everyone’s talking about Tebow, but people like watching the Pats, too.(AP photo, by Jack Dempsey, via)

Last night, Sunday Night Football and the World Series went head-to-head on NBC and Fox, respectively. SNF produced one of the most boring, lopsided NFL games in recent memory, while Game 4 of the World Series was much closer. Did the ratings at all reflect this?