ESPN says its Saturday night coverage of USC’s 18-15 win at Ohio State averaged 7,243,000 households, which translates to 10.5 million viewers, which results in a 7.3 rating — making it the network’s most-viewed college football game, both in regular season and bowl games.

Just not the highest rated.

The 7.3 rating is the highest for a college football game in 15 years, but doesn’t surpass the 7.7 that Florida State-Miami averaged on October 8, 1994.

Last Monday’s Florida State-Miami game on Labor Day was seen by 8.4 million total viewers (5.8 million homes) and had a 5.9 rating.

ESPN also says its ESPN360.com had its best single-day viewing. It simulcast the USC-Ohio State game and still had its highest traffic. The game also had the most traffic on ESPN’s Mobile Web site (8 million page views).

THIS JUST IN: From the Associated Press, and we’re not sure how it relates to the Ohio State loss:

LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) — Lawyer says Ohio execution on hold temporarily as team has trouble accessing veins.