College Football Playoff Ratings Tank

So much for establishing a new New Year's Eve tradition - my playoff viewing ended once Oklahoma-Clemson got out of hand

The college football public has spoken loudly: New Years Eve is not a popular choice for the College Football Playoff semifinals.

ESPN drew 18,552,000 viewers for its Cotton Bowl broadcast of Alabama’s 38–0 win over Michigan State, while the Orange Bowl matchup featuring Clemson’s 37–17 victory over Oklahoma drew 15,640,000 viewers. Both playoff games last year drew just over 28 million viewers. The first playoff semifinal was down 45% in viewership versus last year; the late semifinal was down 34.4%.

http://www.si.com/college-football/2016/01/01/college-football-playoff-viewership-new-years-eve-decline-espn

Apparently this is all about the folks who run college football wanting to protect their relationships with the pre-existing bowls, particularly the Rose Bowl

No one is trying to establish a new tradition here. They are honoring two of the oldest traditions in America … self-indulgence and cronyism.

The conference commissioners who run the sport may not care about or even consider you, the fan, but they do care deeply about bowl executives, usually old friends who have been plying them with free everything – golf, gifts, booze, hotels, Caribbean cruises, you name it – for decades.

They really, really love those guys. Love them so much that when they designed the playoff they made sure, out of the goodness of their hearts, to continue outsourcing their most profitable games to them.

They love all bowl games but they love none quite like the Rose Bowl.

As such, they would never dare make the Rose Bowl move its kickoff time from 5 p.m. ET on Jan. 1 – you know, that perfect time to watch a big game. That’s when the start of the semifinal doubleheader should always be played. One out of every three years, when the Rose Bowl is a host, it is.

Yet in the other two years the Rose Bowl still gets the best time slot even if the game, such as this year, can only be considered “big” if you’re from Iowa. Meanwhile, the Sugar Bowl has somehow been granted exclusivity to the equally coveted primetime slot on New Year’s Day, even if it’s hosting Ole Miss-Oklahoma State and the five losses between them....

“It might be a great way to bring more women to college football,” Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany reasoned to the Chicago Tribune. “We can build our audience.”

OK, then. Delany is the same guy who runs a Midwest-based league but didn’t want any semifinals played in the Midwest because he has too much love for the old bowls and old bowl directors in the South and West. Forget seeking a competitive advantage for his teams or bringing big-event revenue to the region or caring about how costly the travel is for his own league’s fans.

Link to full article below

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/why-are-the-playoff-semifinals-on-new-year-s-eve-again-053757483-ncaaf.html

More collateral damage with the Sugar Bowl and Rose Bowl getting prime New Year's Day time slots in perpetuity is that the Fiesta Bowl kicked off at 10 am in Arizona yesterday

Good to know that there is a group of football executives more arrogant than Goodell & Friends