With the NFL expansion of its regular season schedule, this is a problem that’s only going to get more awkward for college football.
The Sugar Bowl has been moved off its usual primetime spot to noon ET on Dec. 31 to avoid a conflict with a Monday night NFL game.
… With Jan. 1, 2023, falling on Sunday, the games usually played on New Year’s Day were moved to Jan. 2, when the national holiday is observed. The move to Monday is common in college football to avoid conflicting with the NFL.
But ESPN found itself with a conflict that day: The NFL has scheduled the final Monday regular-season game for that night, which forced a relocation by the New Orleans-based Sugar Bowl on the schedule. [Emphasis added.]
By the way, the CFP semifinals will be played on December 31, which should guarantee the Sugar Bowl minuscule ratings, relatively speaking. But Mickey will be appeased, by Gawd.
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Why wouldn’t they move their minor league games around for the pros?
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The Rose Bowl is not played on New Years Day if it falls on Sunday. The tradition began because the parade would scare the horses tied up at church!
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An 11 AM kickoff on a Monday after a long, drunken weekend in New Orleans is a fantastic recipe for lots and lots of empty seats in the Superdome.
I guess the planners out there can live it up on Saturday night, spend Sunday nursing a hangover in the quarter, get to bed early that night and head home after the game for work on Tuesday. But I’ve spent enough time in New Orleans to know that the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.
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Cafe Du Monde doesn’t serve magical beignets to “sop” up all the alcohol that fast…
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There’s a reason you see dead pigeons around that beignet dispensary.
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+1 … prime example of why when sporting executives complain about attendance you know it is the secondary source of revenue. They will talk about fan experience and putting “butts” in seats but will toss it out at the drop of a hat for that sweet sweet tv money.
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OK, misunderstood what was going on when I went back and read it. They moved it to NYE morning as a lead-in to the playoff games. The Cotton Bowl is the game that will be played in the morning on that Monday.
There are going to be some non-functioning college football fans on Bourbon street come the first hour of 2023.
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Also, looking at their schedule for the following season, the Rose and the Sugar are scheduled for Monday, January 1, 2024 as the CFP semifinals. Is ESPN going to put them in the early and middle slots to avoid competing with MNF? That would be some real BS.
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Yeah this is bad – I thought at first the problem here was the venue – that there is a saints game that night on MNF… Nope. My question is – if you’re moving the game to a spot with lousy ratings anticipation anyway, why not just compete with the NFL game? Its not like the NFL does CFB any favors with scheduling.
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I find it odd that the NFL doesn’t mind running competing games all day Sunday yet Mickey refuses to run a competitive college game on days/times that are traditionally reserved for college games.
Fuck the NFL.
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This is a little humorous, mickey, competing with itself….
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Two things:
ESPN obviously learned that a premier CFB game can’t compete against a mediocre NFL game when they all but killed Thursday night off after the NFL started playing games. You want to put a CFB game up against a week 18 game that potentially has playoff implications? Not happening.
While most of the CFB season primarily relies on CFB-first fans, the major bowls are different. There are people all over the country, but particularly in the West and Northeast who rarely watch CFB except for the bowls while being regular viewers of the NFL. Those folks (much like the March only basketball fans) are what makes the TV contracts for the NY6 so ludicrous. The company paying the fees to broadcast those games are going to make sure they’re able to watch their games at the highest rate possible. If it takes moving a huge game to 11 AM, they’ll do it.
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Yeeeeeah, that sort of makes sense except it doesn’t. Very few people will attend an 11am game or watch it. That’s effectively destroying viewership.
Fuck the NFL.
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ESPN could not care less on how many fans are in the stadium. As the Senator aptly described in another post today, their targets are Section HD and 4K.
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I am more upset that the NFL stole Thursday nights from College Football. I used to really look forward to a Mississippi State vs whoever on a Thursday.
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Don’t know if there was any snark in that, but I agree…I liked the odd off Thursday night games. Sitting in a local Messicun restaurant packed with a bunch football dads in Chatsworth Ga, I watched Louisville snap something like a 30 year losing streak against Florida State on a Thursday night. Must’ve been 01 or 02. Fun times man.
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No snark. I’d rather watch Miss State vs Arkansas when both are 3-4 than an NFL game. The last really anticipated Thursday game I can remember is the Stanford vs Oregon from maybe 2012 or 2013.
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Noon lead-in to the CFP semis on Saturday is better than head to head with the NFL on Monday. I think it wii be OK relative to the fact that bowl ratings will likely still be going down due to the CFP. Notre Dame vs LSU would be an interesting matchup.
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Catholics vs. drunk Catholics.
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CFB is circling the drain.
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This is great ammo for folks looking to keep the CFP at four.
For everyone with a hard on for an expanded CFP – when do you think those mid-December games will be played? There is NFL on Monday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
So all these games will be on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday – around the holidays.
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