The ratings for the most recent ESPNU broadcasted HBCUs for last week are in and it's oddly low. SportsMediaWatch reports that the Thursday evening broadcast of North Carolina Central vs. Morgan State drew 27,000 linear television viewers and the Saturday afternoon broadcast of Howard's homecoming game vs. Hampton drew 25,000 viewers. Compared to the non-HBCU games broadcast on ESPNU last week, Georgia State vs. Louisiana also drew 25,000, and Toledo vs. Miami (OH) drew 46,000. ESPNU's highest-viewed game of last week was Western Kentucky University's matchup against Jacksonville State, which drew 110,000 viewers.

The viewership numbers of the two ESPNU broadcasts are also low compared to the two other live ESPNU broadcasts of HBCU games this season. Week 1's Red Tails Classic between Fort Valley State and Tuskegee University attracted 67,000 viewers and Florida A&M vs. Southern drew 40.000 viewers. Both the Red Tails Classic and the Florida A&M/Southern matchup were played during the weekend (Sunday of Week 1 and Saturday of Week 6) at later times. The Red Tails Classic was one of only a few games played on Sunday, September 3rd, and coincided with Labor Day, in which many were off of work that Monday.

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The number is unusual given the typical viewership of HBCU football on linear television. However, the lower-than-normal viewership could also be attributed to the game being broadcast on ESPNU instead of ESPN2. Per a report by John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal, ESPNU is only available in 37 million homes while ESPN2 is available in 71 million homes. North Carolina Central's blowout of Morgan State drew in the 2022 season 108,000 views when it was broadcast on ESPN2. Benedict's dominant 48-6 win over Fort Valley State earlier this month on October 12th drew 98,000 viewers on ESPN2, a noteworthy number considering the lack of promotion that ESPN typically gives non-top 25 FBS college football games.

Although linear viewership has been released, streaming numbers for the aforementioned games haven't as of this writing. North Carolina Central/Morgan State and Norfolk State/Howard were also streamed on ESPN3.