(January 12, 2011) The BCS has withstood years of fan catcalls. But it might someday succumb to this: Fans giving it the thumbs down with their TV remotes.

ESPN’s Auburn-Oregon title game Monday drew 15.3% of U.S. TV households — down 11% from last year’s Alabama-Texas game and the lowest title game rating in six years. This followed notable drops for ESPN’s other BCS games, which this season aired on cable TV for the first time: The Oklahoma-Connecticut Fiesta Bowl fell 30%, followed by the Stanford-Virginia Tech Orange Bowl (off 22%) and TCU-Wisconsin Rose Bowl (off 14%). Only Ohio State-Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl was up (+25%).

ESPN notes Auburn-Oregon drew cable TV’s biggest-ever audience — which it will remind cable operators the next time it jacks up those operators’ subscription fees — but the BCS has also cut off about 16 million U.S. TV households that don’t get cable TV.

ESPN notes those households accounted for 5% of viewers when BCS games were on broadcast networks.

And BCS ratings faced other drags. Oregon and Auburn come from states with relatively small populations. Stanford and Oklahoma — which might have had a great game if they’d played each other — instead produced less-than-mediagenic blowouts.

Big names such as Florida, Penn State, Texas and Alabama were absent. And big names can attract eyeballs: Consider that Florida’s win vs. Penn State in ABC’s Outback Bowl drew a rating up 103% over Auburn’s overtime win against Northwestern in that bowl last year on ESPN.

And maybe, even as NFL TV ratings are on a roll, this just isn’t a great year for college football TV box office: ESPN/ABC’s 28 non-BCS bowls averaged 2.5% — down 11%. Fan apathy, not fury, could be what finally cuts college football’s Gordian knot.