Overnights for the Rose Bowl and Fiesta Bowl on ESPN on Saturday dropped 15% and 22% respectively from last year.

TCU's 21-19 win against Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl drew an 11.7 rating, down from the 13.8 for Ohio State's 26-17 win against Oregon last year on ABC. Oklahoma's 48-20 Fiesta Bowl victory over Connecticut drew a 6.7, down from the 8.6 for Boise State's 17-10 win over TCU last year on Fox.

While those ratings are preliminary pending national numbers later this week, double-digit ratings drops for the first two of five BCS games aren't good news no matter how the BCS or ESPN might spin them.

They raised eyebrows Sunday going into ESPN's telecast of Monday night's Orange Bowl between Stanford and Virginia Tech, Tuesday's Sugar Bowl between Ohio State and Arkansas and next week's national championship game between Auburn and Oregon.

So what's the problem? Part of it is weaker matchups. There's no Alabama, no Southern California, no Florida, no Texas in the BCS mix this year. Teams like TCU, despite its undefeated season, and Connecticut don't have national TV followings.

Then there's the move of all the BCS games to cable for the first time. ESPN shelled out $125 million for four years to air all the BCS games this year compared to last year. Fox aired four of five in the final year of its BCS deal and ESPN chose to show the Rose Bowl on sister network ABC. ESPN has closed the gap, reaching 99.8 million homes vs. 115 million for broadcast networks.

Naturally, ESPN looked on the bright side Sunday, noting its Rose Bowl telecast posted the highest overnight rating on cable for any non-NFL program since 2001 and that its Fiesta Bowl coverage won the prime-time ratings battle. (The Rose Bowl did not start in prime time but finished in prime time.)

"These huge audiences demonstrate the incredible fan interest in college football," Burke Magnus, ESPN's senior vice president of college sports programming, said in a statement. "Things like competitiveness and story lines for each game lead to shifts in overall viewership. We are very pleased with the results so far."