The news doesn’t get better in the midst of one of the toughest television years for college football. Bowl ratings, on average are down 9% from last season including a 11% drop for the BCS title game that went down to the wire between Auburn and Oregon.

Disappointing, but understandable considering that the 4 BCS bowls, plus the title game shifted from Fox and ABC to ESPN, who had to outbid Fox by $100 million to carry the games from 2011-14. A drop in viewership is a usual and expected effect of this broadcast-to-cable shift. Old-line networks (ABC, NBC, Fox, CBS) play to 116 million TV homes while ESPN is limited to about 100 million subscribers, just 86% of the broadcast base resulting in 15-16 million viewers that don’t get satellite or cable who are being disenfrancished.

As sports have moved to cable, we’ve seen the viewership fall. It has happened in the N.B.A., the British Open, “Monday Night Football,” the Breeders’ Cup and Nascar. The nine Chase for the Sprint Cup races that left ABC for ESPN last year had a 20 percent drop in viewers, to 4.4 million.

And on top of that, let’s not forget the matchups that viewers were faced with. The Orange and Fiesta ended in lopsided blowouts between teams that struggle to carry a national audience (UConn, Stanford, Virginia Tech), and even the Granddaddy of them All was handcuffed to a matchup between B1G squad Wisconsin and TCU, a mid major without the cachet of most traditional programs, thanks to a BCS rule requiring them to do so once every 4 years.

So, understandably the ratings for the BCS Title (-11%), Rose (-15%), Sugar (-4%), Orange (-1%) and Fiesta (-25%) bowls are significantly lower when compared to last season. And as much as ESPN would like to spin the numbers in a positive light, the ratings decline remains a tough blow in the fight between broadcasters and cable whose ad-supported networks are battling the advantage of subscriber fees that ESPN charges. It’s tough to sell an unattractive yet overpriced product to prospective sponsors.

But it’s not all bad news. Penn State, once again, has dominated bowl ratings. In fact, the Outback Bowl between the Nittany Lions and the Florida Gators rank 4th among all bowls, BCS and non-BCS drawing more viewers than the Orange and Fiesta bowls. The 7.05 rating represents an eye popping 101% increase more than doubling the 3.5 rating earned last season during an OT thriller between Auburn and Northwestern. Amidst a bowl season when 23 of the 33 returning bowls drew lower ratings than a year ago, including 13 that plummeted by 20% or more, the Outback bowl emerged as a clear winner.

There was a bit of hesitation back in December when the Outback Bowl selected the Nittany Lions with the #2 pick of B1G teams passing over fellow programs with identical 7-5 records; Michigan, Northwestern, and particularly Iowa who beat the Lions in their conference opener. But, it’s tough to blame the Outback Bowl for making a fiscally sound decision. And based on the 7.05 rating that doubled last season’s OT thriller, the Outback Bowl committee was right all along.

* Nielsen Media Research