Michigan State basketball dismantled No. 16 North Carolina on Thanksgiving Day to improve to 7-0 on the season, and with some top-10 teams losing this past week, the Spartans should be jumping into the top 10 when the new rankings come out on Monday.
While the rankings don’t mean much at this point in the season, it’s still nice to see the Spartans getting some love on the national stage.
Speaking of national stage, the Spartans were able to pick up that win over the Tar Heels in front of a massive audience.
Just how big was the audience? It was actually the biggest college basketball audience in FOX history. That’s right, no game has ever topped what Michigan State vs North Carolina did on Thanksgiving Day which is somewhat surprising given the fact that there was an NFL game going on at the same time.
Michigan State’s Thanksgiving Day win over UNC in the Fort Myers Tip-Off scored 5,488,000 viewers on FOX - the most-watched college basketball game ever on the network 🦃
— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) November 28, 2025
The game peaked at 13,414,000 viewers from 4:30-4:45 PM ET on FOX 🏀 pic.twitter.com/5L8QC4sSc1
According to FOX Sports PR, Michigan State vs. North Carolina drew an audience of over 5.4 million viewers on Thursday evening. That’s good for the most viewers in FOX history when it comes to a college basketball game. Is that surprising? Not really. Two blue bloods went at it and took center stage on Thanksgiving Day.
There were really no other college basketball games that rivaled Michigan State vs. North Carolina, and two blue bloods was a no brainer for hoops fans. Why would you not want to watch that?
College basketball fans were treated to a great game through about 33 minutes, but Michigan State dominated the last seven minutes, outscoring the Tar Heels 19-6 to end the game. This was one of the most impressive finishes in recent memory for the Spartans, and it was because Jeremy Fears Jr. took over in clutch time. Fears has himself an All-American-type game while Caleb did look like a future pro, but he was neutralized by Michigan State’s defense.
Michigan State now heads into Big Ten play against Iowa at home with a perfect 7-0 record, and if the Spartans can win that, they will be 8-0 before facing one of the best teams in the nation in East Lansing.
Expect more impressive viewership next Saturday against Duke.