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ESPN, NFL want College Football Playoff to change dates

By Phil Watson

Jan 12, 2015; Arlington, TX, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer receives the College Football Playoff trophy from College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock (left) after the game against Oregon Ducks in the 2015 CFP National Championship Game at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 12, 2015; Arlington, TX, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer receives the College Football Playoff trophy from College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock (left) after the game against Oregon Ducks in the 2015 CFP National Championship Game at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports /
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The College Football Playoff is scheduled to play its semifinals in 2015 on New Year’s Eve and ESPN would like those moved to Jan. 2.

Politely, the College Football Playoff is telling both ESPN and NBC to go … ahem … themselves.

According to Sports Business Journal, the network and the professional football league has been pressuring the CFP on different front about changing its schedule, both in the short- and long-term.

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ESPN’s concerns are that the CFP—as part of a never-ending job of placating the Rose Bowl—has scheduled the national semifinals for the 2015 season on New Year’s Eve.

The semifinals will be played next season at the Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl and are scheduled for New Year’s Eve.

The network would like those games switched to Saturday, Jan. 2, but the CFP is holding firm to its plan to hold tripleheaders with the New Year’s Six bowls on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

“We’ve started a new tradition and we don’t want to back away from it now,” said CFP executive director Bill Hancock.

OK, for starters, Hancock could back off the hubris just a little—well, actually, a lot. One does not “start” a tradition; traditions—by definition—evolve.

And if your network partner says your ratings—the ratings that pay the bills—are going to suck on one day and be awesome on another, the only thing preventing a move is hubris.

The problem, of course, is the Rose Bowl. Why? Because whenever there is a problem involving bowl games, playoffs, and the like, the problem is always the Rose Bowl.

Much like the 65-year-old former starlet who still thinks she’s the hottest chick in every room, the Rose Bowl has been allowed to perpetuate a belief that because it is the oldest of the New Year’s bowl games, it is by default greater than the others.

Think George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”—all animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the mindset of the granddaddy of them all, the Rose Bowl.

But here’s the sad truth about granddaddies. They get old and die.

The Rose Bowl continues to be the granddaddy of all pains in the butt to college football. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
The Rose Bowl continues to be the granddaddy of all pains in the butt to college football. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /

That is not to say I want the Rose Bowl to go away. But someone in the college football establishment needs to take the Diva Bowl aside and send the message that the Rose Bowl is still special—just not more special than the other five bowls it is partnered with.

Meanwhile, the NFL is seriously considering adding one team per conference to the playoff bracket, which would necessitate a third Wild Card Playoff in the AFC and NFC.

The schedule currently has two Wild Card playoff games played on Saturday and two more on Sunday. As part of an expansion, the NFL is looking at playing at least one playoff game on a Monday.

Apparently the triple-header idea isn’t popular in NFL circles.

The problem is that in most years a Monday Wild Card Playoff would be on the second Monday in January—which is the CFP’s championship night.

The CFP championship between Oregon and Ohio State on Jan. 12 became the first show in cable television history to top 30 million viewers, averaging 33.4 million for the broadcast.

The semifinals, which were played New Year’s Day at the Diva—ahem, Rose—Bowl and Sugar Bowl drew more than 28 million viewers each, becoming the most-watched programs in cable TV history until the CFP championship surpassed them.

ESPN insiders are reportedly saying they are prepared for double-digit drops—like more than 10 million fewer viewers—if the semifinals are played on New Year’s Eve.

And of course, the scheduling issue is that the Rose Bowl sits there like a gigantic zit on college football’s nose, taking up a prime time television slot on New Year’s Day even in the years it doesn’t host a semifinal.

The college football power brokers—Hancock and his ilk—don’t really have much of a leg to stand on, considering that three years ago they were screaming from every mountaintop that a playoff would kill college football.

After getting more than 89 million viewers combined for three playoff games in the sport’s first go-around, I’m not inclined to believe the sun crashes from the sky if the tripleheaders are played Jan. 1 and 2 instead of Dec. 31, just because the suits running college football say so.

New Year’s Eve is actually a stupid date to begin with considering that it is still a work day for most people and, well, college football may be shocked to learn this, but there are other activities planned for that night.

But until someone has the stones necessary to put the Rose Bowl in its place so that it understands that it is one of six games rather than the anointed one with five subordinates, this issue will crop up again and again.

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