ESPN’s presentation of the College Football Playoff seems unlikely to see many significant changes. While sports media figures like Tony Kornheiser criticized the CFP for scheduling games that compete with the NFL, suggesting it was “football on football crime,” there was a notion that the CFP might consider moving these games out of NFL time slots.
CFP executive director Rich Clark echoed this idea after two opening-round games were scheduled against the NFL this postseason. Instead of yielding to the NFL the Saturday after conference championships, the CFP chose to schedule two games during the pro football slots, resulting in a predicted outcome: the NFL dominated viewership. NBC and Fox games attracted over 15 million viewers, while the noon ET Penn State-SMU clash on TNT barely reached 6 million.
Additionally, ESPN’s choice to sublicense two games to TNT further exacerbated the CFP’s challenge. Scheduling a Friday evening doubleheader, as the NFL suggested, might have mitigated direct competition with professional football and could have allowed for a distribution of viewership. However, speculation remains, as Sports Business Journal reported minimal appetite for change among the playoff committee.
As detailed by SBJ:
ESPN presented viewership data to the CFP Management Committee prior to the championship game, with sources indicating that there was no commitment among the group to implement any significant schedule changes in Year 2 of the expanded CFP.
Figures such as Joel Klatt and Paul Finebaum have suggested moving the first CFP round to Heisman week, coinciding with the Army-Navy game, and advancing America’s Game to opening week. Yet, for the time being, there appears to be no inclination for significant changes.
Notably, SBJ pointed out that sources within ESPN’s presentation believed the first round CFP games on TNT impacted the NFL audience more than vice versa. This suggests that ESPN views the viewership numbers for the afternoon CFP games as not being as low as initially feared, despite the figures telling a different story. For now, the CFP seems content to maintain its current course regarding drastic changes. While there may still be potential for adjustments that could benefit both the CFP and the NFL, any notion of moving the first round up a week has been temporarily tabled.
