Which ultimately comes back to being competitive. If they arent then you arent going to get ratings going forward.
Also, even though teams like OU, TENN, Bama, etc. have been blown out in the past, the difference is going into those games people were expecting competitive contests.
Whereas with the games involving JMU and Tulane people immediately expect those games to be four score blowouts. So there's no buzz about those matchups and people make plans to do other things while those games are being played.