• by Wayne Friedman , January 4, 2007

Fox's airing of college football's Bowl Championship Series hasn't given the network any big ratings lift so far. The Orange Bowl didn't deliver the green.

Although it won Monday night with the Fiesta Bowl, it did not dominate. And last night, a low-profile Tuesday night matchup between Louisville and Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl yielded a weaker preliminary 3.6 rating/9 share among 18-49 viewers.

The game couldn't keep pace with NBC, which surprisingly won the night. It focused its efforts around two "Law & Order" franchises: "Law & Order: Criminal Intent"--which earned a 4.1 rating/10 share--and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," which grabbed an even better 5.2/14.

NBC won with a 4.1/10. Fox was next with a 3.4/9; then CBS, at a 2.5/6; ABC followed with a 2.0/5; Univision earned a 1.6/4; and CW pulled an 0.8/2.

To be fair, last year's Orange Bowl contest was a high-profile affair featuring legendary coaches and teams: Bobby Bowden of Florida State and Joe Paterno of Penn State. It took in a 6.5 number.

By way of comparison, last year, every major BCS game aired gave ABC dominating wins for the night. So far, Fox has yet to top any of ABC's BCS games in 2005.

Still, Fox has two big games to be accounted for--the Sugar Bowl last night with Notre Dame and LSU, and then the BCS Championship game on Monday with Florida and Ohio State.