Despite a huge decline in television ratings for this season’s College Football Playoff games, the powers that be behind playing the national semifinals on New Year’s Eve remain committed to making this concept work.
“The College Football Playoff is a long-term, multiplatform play for us,” Burke Magnus, ESPN’s executive vice president of program and scheduling, said in a release. “With that said, there are many variables that impact ratings results, including what happens on the field, and the numbers this year were obviously impacted by the unbalanced scores of these games.”
https://twitter.com/BrianMFloyd/status/682981345253928960
Clemson’s 37-17 victory over Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl, which kicked off at about 4:10 p.m. EST on ESPN, earned a 9.1 rating, which is 38.5 percent lower than the 14.8 rating for last season’s Rose Bowl, Oregon’s 59-20 rout of Florida State. Total viewership of this season’s first semifinal dropped from 28,164,000 to 15,640,000, a decline of 44.5 percent.
ESPN drew a 9.6 rating for the Alabama’s 38-0 mauling of Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl, a 36.8 percent crash from the 15.2 it drew for Ohio State’s 42-35 win over the Crimson Tide last Jan. 1. Total viewership declined from 28,271,000 to 18,552,000, a drop-off of 34.4 percent.
Of course, last season’s higher ratings could have something to do with the fact that the national semis were played on New Year’s Day. But like it or not, like this season’s games, seven of the next 10 national semifinals will be played on Dec. 31. So the ratings drop might join the ball drop as a New Year’s Eve tradition.
Holding playoff games on NYE will go down as a Sam Bowie over M.J., New Coke bust. The @SInow Media column: https://t.co/YvXVIlkmge
— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) January 4, 2016
Not surprisingly, CFP executive director Bill Hancock tried to use the blowouts as a reason for the ratings decline.
“We had some bum luck with the lack of competitive games,” Hancock said. “Things would have been different with competitive games. How much different, nobody knows.”
In case you were wondering, last winter, trying to capitalize on the fact that Jan. 2 fell on a Saturday this year, ESPN asked College Football Playoff officials to consider moving this season’s semis to Jan. 2.
But CFP officials declined the network’s request.
“We approached the CFP with a one-year change — and really a one-year-only opportunity — because of a complete quirk in the calendar,” said Ilan Ben-Hanan, ESPN’s vice president of programming and acquisitions. “With Saturday being a traditional college football day, we thought it could be a great one-time opportunity to have the semifinals fall on Jan. 2. You would have the Rose and Sugar and Fiesta (bowls) on Jan. 1 as it already is scheduled and then you would move what is the current New Year’s Eve schedule to Jan. 2.
“We approached the CFP with (the idea), the CFP vetted it and they decided to stick with the regularly scheduled calendar, which is fine, and we move forward.”
I predicted the NYE ratings disaster last January. If I can see it a year away why can't CFB leaders? https://t.co/N0g52wDDOx
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) January 1, 2016
According to Hancock, there are no plans to change, at least for next season. However, that could change in the future at any time.
“It may turn out by the time we get to Year 5, and we’ve had competitive games, that we say, ‘You know what, it’s not working,’” said Hancock earlier today. “But it’s important not to jump to conclusions after one year of admittedly disappointing ratings.”
Stan Chrapowicki is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers SEC football, Alabama and Auburn.
