With a competitive game and minus head-to-head competition from the NFL, the Christmas Eve Hawaii Bowl had its best ratings and viewership in four seasons.

Fresno State’s 33-27 victory over Houston Sunday on ESPN attracted 2.1 million viewers, according to Sports Media Watch. Viewership was up 53 percent over the 2016 game when Hawaii defeated Middle Tennessee. SMW said the Bulldogs and Cougars attracted the largest audience since the 2013 Boise State-Oregon State game and ratings were up 57 percent.

There were four ties in the game.

“We were hoping for a competitive game and that’s what we got,” said Pete Derzis, senior vice president, college sports programming and events at ESPN, which owns and operates the game.

The game kicked off at 3:30 p.m. (8:30 p.m. Eastern time), a half hour later than in recent years. It was the first time since 2009 that the NFL did not offer a prime time Sunday game and the first time since 2014 the bowl did not face direct NFL competition.