Though TV viewership for the BCS Bowl Games only increased slightly this year, the online audience is reaping record viewer numbers for worldwide sports leader ESPN, according to figures released by the network.

In a press release ESPN said that it averaged 288,000 unique online viewers during the first three BCS bowl games this season, including the Rose Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl and the Sugar Bowl. According to ESPN the average viewer spent almost 80 minutes online watching games, adding up to a total of 23.1 million online minutes. The time-watched stat is up 73 percent from last year, while the unique-visitor number is up 31 percent, ESPN said.

What should be interesting to see is how much those numbers stack up for Monday’s BCS championship game, the rematch between LSU and Alabama. Unfortunately, Comcast cable customers still won’t have access to the ESPN3 ESPNWatch service, even though the cable giant signed a deal earlier this week with ESPN to provide the ability to watch ESPN online sometime down the road.

According to an ESPN spokesperson, only customers of Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Verizon’s FiOS service will have access to the full WatchESPN app and system for the BCS game. Though ESPN couldn’t officially confirm the reason, basic network knowledge says that there probably just wasn’t time to configure the authentication systems needed to give Comcast customers access.

However, anyone with a broadband provider who supports ESPN3 access (see a long list here to check if your provider allows it), which includes Comcast broadband customers, should be able to watch the game on the ESPN website. (If you are confused by the whole ESPN3/WatchESPN thing don’t feel bad. We’ve had multiple emails and phone calls with the kind ESPN folks today and still don’t think we’ve explained it fully.)

If you have more questions the WatchESPN FAQ is a good place to start. We will put together a brilliant how-to-watch-the-BCS online by Monday that hopefully explains this more clearly.