Deion Sanders, Colorado's Win vs. Jay Norvell, CSU Drew Historic 9.3M Viewers on ESPN

Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes have quickly become the most popular college football team of the 2023 season.

ESPN announced on Tuesday that Colorado's double-overtime win over Colorado State this past weekend drew 9.3 million viewers, making it the most-watched late-night college football game ever broadcast on the network.

The game between the Buffaloes and the Rams didn't kick off until after 10 p.m. ET, and it ended around 2:30 a.m. with Colorado earning a hard-fought victory. John Ourand of Sports Business Journal pointed out that the game peaked at 11.095 million viewers between 11:00 and 11:15 p.m. and still registered 8.230 million viewers at 2:15 a.m.

ESPN noted that it was the fifth-most regular-season game ever on the network in any time slot, which is a massive achievement considering that broadcast window averaged 1.7 million viewers last year. It was also the most streamed game of all time for the network.

Colorado has captured the attention of the college football world thanks to their impressive start to the season in their first year under Sanders, which featured an upset win over then-No. 17 TCU and a strong victory against Nebraska. Those two games were broadcast on Fox in the Big Noon slot and averaged about 8 million viewers, per ESPN.

However, the game against Colorado State was preceded by a testy buildup following comments from Rams head coach Jay Norvell that Sanders felt made things "personal."

The game more than delivered, as the Buffaloes had to overcome an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit to force overtime. Shedeur Sanders, Deion's son, engineered the comeback with a 98-yard touchdown drive in the final two minutes of regulation, and then he threw two more scores in the extra periods. Sanders finished with 348 yards, four touchdowns and an interception.

No. 19 Colorado will be in another prime broadcast window this Saturday for its game against No. 10 Oregon, as it will be on ABC at 3:30 p.m. ET.