How boring was the BCS game? Fans were turning to their cellphones in record numbers.

AT&T announced Thursday it had never seen so much cellphone use at a sporting event than it did for the Monday night game at Sun Life Stadium, when the Alabama Crimson Tide quickly dominated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. In fact, data traffic was 150 percent more than the 2012 Super Bowl in Indianapolis when the New York Giants eked out a 21-17 win over the New England Patriots.

At least part of the spike had nothing to do with the game itself: the still-growing popularity of smart phones, the increasing amount of data that can be streamed easily, the enhanced coverage at Sun Life for the large event. But the lopsided 42-14 game certainly didn’t provide much distraction. Spectators sent and received more than 360,000 texts and 75,000 calls — roughly one call per ticket holder.

DOUGLAS HANKS