Is there anybody in college football easier to dunk on than Bill Hancock?
If you were planning the perfect day to air the College Football Playoff semifinals, New Year’s Eve would not rank very high on the list. Given Dec. 31 isn’t a federal holiday, plenty of potential viewers will work during the day, not to mention the revelry and bacchanalia that comes after dark.
The lords of college football, however, suggest you will forget such old acquaintances.
“We really do think we’re going to change the paradigm of New Year’s Eve,” said Bill Hancock, the executive director of the College Football Playoff.
That was from July of 2015. Doubts began setting in the very next year.
Well, nothing’s changed. Literally.
New Year’s Eve had a negative impact on the TV ratings for the College Football Playoff semifinals once again.
Friday’s semifinal games between No. 1 Alabama and No. 4 Cincinnati and No. 2 Michigan and No. 3 Georgia drew significantly fewer viewers than the semifinals after the 2020 season. Those semifinals — the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl — were played on New Year’s Day.
It’s not that people weren’t interested in watching the games.
Maybe choosing to broadcast your crown jewels starting in the afternoon of a working day isn’t a genius idea. It certainly hasn’t proven to be the paradigm changer Bill was so confident was coming. Shocking, I know.
Get The Picture 
Changing peoples habit is a lot harder than Bob assumed. I wonder how much he paid in consulting fees to come up with his grand plan.
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How many of those 17.2 million viewers were Alabama analysts?
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I feel like ESPN goes out of its way to make it hard to watch bowl games. From having 11 am kickoffs on weekdays to New Years Eve semifinals to last night’s weirdly scheduled LSU game to playing the championship in the middle of the night between Monday and Tuesday.
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Sunday belongs to the NFL. Bob didn’t want all his big games going off on a single Saturday competing with each other. It’s always follow the money to find the reason in CFB like most things.
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C’mon on now, knowing a ton of peeps worked on the 31st, a ton of peeps didn’t work, those that were scheduled called in sick, some made an ass load of $$$$$$ in the service industry or watched some games from their work station, attempting to use the “federal holiday” thing is very weak sauce…should UGA football bring that big ass trophy home to the Classic City, tuesday the 11th will be a friggin’ holiday all year long…if those semi’s would have been closer in the scoring department, there would be a different narrative, cinderella lost her slipper, meeeeshigun found out what a friggin’ gap is…GO DAWGS!
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A working day and the early game started at 12:30 west coast time!
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Don’t get me started on the National Championship being on a Monday. Cannot even consider taking my children. Have to take two days off to go. Just play it on Saturday ffs. Douchebags.
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Empty-nester here but the Monday night sucks donkey balls. The season was played on Saturdays, the championship game should be on a Saturday as well.
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It’s amazing how the 4 traditional New Year’s Day games used to be able to be played on New Year’s Day.
What’s different now? ESPN broadcasts all of them. There isn’t enough time in the day on New Year’s. Another reason why ESPN is the devil.
I don’t know what the fix is, but it’s a bigger deal for this coming season because NYD falls on Sunday.
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NYD bowls will be played on Monday, like they always have been when NYD is on a Sunday; assume the playoff games/other NY6 will be on Friday and Saturday.
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That means they will likely have the same problem although the semifinal games will get higher ratings on a Saturday NYE. The games in 2022 are Peach and Fiesta.
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You’re not paying attention if you don’t know why…
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Can’t tell ratings, but viewership on some of the games before 2020 was 25-28 million, way higher than last Friday.
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ESPN needs to fill air time. That’s why there was a ‘bowl’ game last night,
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I like the playoffs on New Year’s eve. It allows me to refuse to get dragged to some party. Getting old rocks.
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Me too.
And when some airhead schedules their wedding or some other “you must come” event on the day of a Georgia game (be it regular season or bowl) they find out that their event can very well do without me.
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Viewership?! If it was on their top 10 of concerns they wouldn’t schedule the championship game on a Monday night.
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Buddy, that is prioirty 1-10 for them. Viewership = Ratings = GRPs = Pricing for Advertisers. If you don’t think it’s a hard sell go to to agencies year after year with declining ratings and have negotiation power, you’re wrong.
as an astute commentor noted above, and as the senator often says: it’s always about the money
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It’s about the money… this year. If this year’s decisions make a 1% difference in profit they will do it. If it means the sport declines overall, well that’s the next guy’s problem, and screw him and all the people still watching the sport.
It’s my golden goose for this contract period and it’s going to shit as many eggs as I can squeeze out of it as fast as possible till she dies or the contract runs up. That’s the mentality of every single person in power in college football in the year 2022.
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They can’t have ratings tanked by the NFL..hence Monday.
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Damn Bill it ain’t 1950 anymore. We don’t just do whatever we want whenever we want to anymore; gotta consider the wife these days. So when 95% of fans don’t have a dog in the fight and the games are almost certain to be blowouts, it’s kind of a big ask to spend that relationship capital taking a half day at work and scrapping the NYE plans to sit around and watch two football games featuring teams people don’t normally follow.
Long-standing American Tradition…. which you’re badly fucking with, BILL…. dictates we ALREADY HAVE NEW YEARS DAY CARVED OUT TO WATCH FOOTBALL!!!! It’s our day. The kids are still out of school, everyone’s nursing a hangover, and WE’RE WATCHING FOOTBALL AS GOD INTENDED!!!! Every single New Year’s Day that goes by without the best football being played puts a big crack in the wall around New Year’s Day football tradition. You’re doing that, Bill. You’re killing the American dream.
But hey, neat experiment. Is it fun for you? I hope it is. I mean who wouldn’t be thrilled to be a part of your little test to see how the ratings shake out if you just move this one over here and that one over there… just test it out. Just to see what happens. You have that power, Bill. Thanks for using it Bill. We’re all happy for you.
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Well said.
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If you did a sequel to “Dumb and Dumber” and put the guys in charge of a sports league, you could not top the reality of CFB except for the lack of trying to be funny.
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They’re letting the Rose bowl dictate the terms. In years they aren’t in the semifinal rotation, CFP has to allow the Rose to always have the January first date in an unopposed afternoon time slot if they wanted that bowl to be a part of the rotation. If it wasn’t for this, the games would have been played this past Saturday.
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This, it’s the Rose Bowl, for those not paying attention, here’s your issue.
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I liked the playoffs on NYE a crap ton better than I like the natty at 8:00 on a Monday.
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Just wait ’til Bill gets his hands on a 12-team playoff.
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Smart folks took off next Tuesday when we finished 12-0.
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So,
If “they” expand the “playoffs”,
when the hell “they” gonna play’em??
Asking for the Senator!!
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