Complete propaganda of course from ESPN. One for the record books? Well, aren't they all?

But Awful announcing also has an article that paints the good and the bad. One of their points was that while this was the second lowest since 2005, the audience totals are not that far off compared to some other championship games back then:

22.6 million viewers last night
23.1 million in 07-08 for LSU-Ohio State
23.9 million in 03-04 for LSU-Oklahoma
21.6 million in 01-02 for Miami-Oklahoma

They also point out the household reach of ESPN now being down, and so the audience size was fairly strong last night compared to ESPN's reach 10 years ago. But I'm in agreement that the repeat nature of the match up, plus repetitiveness of Alabama is driving ratings and interest down.

There is always something to be proud of. Second worst in 16 years. 22.6 million is a sizeable audience, so not all is bad, but having a repeat game keeps it from what could have been had it been something new and interesting.

by something new and interesting? GA/Mich did not deliver substantially better relative numbers in the semis so I am not sure it can be asserted that they would have been that new draw in the final. The only thing new and interesting is if USC-W or UCLA get relevant again and can deliver LA and the western US. After looking at the numbers currently out, I think there is some Alabama and SEC fatigue but, the declining numbers appear much more about the competitive disparity in the sport and exploding options outside linear networks. Relatively speaking, despite the declining numbers live sports, in general, and the NFL in particular, are still the most heavily watched TV programming which suggests all linear TV programming is declining due to other options not as easily measured.

Even if I watch, I can't feel good about watching when I have to get up at 0 Dark 30.

Listening to Fowler drone and Herbie emote is not really what I want to be doing at 11 o'clock at night.

It makes sense for the west coast fans, but not the east coast major population centers.

I also think 4:30 EST on a Saturday would be best. I know they want to avoid the NFL, which owns weekends on January. But I would prefer one of two options: either delay the title game to the Saturday before the AFC and NFC conference championship Sunday. Or play it the weekend before the Super Bowl when nothing is going on. I know it's a long wait, but the players can be tanned, rested and ready,,,and healthy. Heck, compensate them.

I am a serious college football fan and would like to watch some of the pre and post game stuff. I watch NONE of it. In fact, I turned the game off when UGa went up by 8. I'm not the only one. Just think of all the viewers they are missing out on by not putting this on a weekend and having a day of its own.

BTW, I think the semi-final games should kick off bowl season. And the championship game should be the Rose Bowl on New Years Day.

their TGIF prime time line up. Now that assumes ABC is involved in the broadcast vs. it being exclusively on ESPN and its family of networks (i.e. ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, etc.). At least that is the reason the 1 NFL Playoff game is on Monday night instead of Friday night. CBS, Fox, and NBC would have the same issue with a Friday night broadcast if it ever acquired the rights to the CFP.

Can't understand WHY they don't have it on Saturaday night.
Pretty much a no-brainer to me.

and the concessions the NFL was willing to make in order to be exempt from antitrust laws WRT the league negotiating TV contracts for all the teams, then you will understand why the CFP LLC decided not to compete against NFL regular season or playoffs by playing its championship game on a Saturday night.

I know they don't want to "drag it out". But we are talking two teams. Plus, they would be plenty rested. Unfortunately, the sorry NFL keeps pushing the Super Bowl back. Well into February now.

OTOH, I'd rather the title game be played on New Years Day.
[Post edited by Maroon Baboon at 01/11/2022 10:27PM]

were forced to play on a different day because they didn't want to compete against the NFL. Even if New Year's Day falls on a Saturday, I believe the NFL could choose to play a regular season games/playoff games on that day because it is outside the college football regular season per the concessions made by the NFL under the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961.

I'm shocked...lol

I didn't watch the game...didn't even watch the highlights afterwards. Just not interested in what ESPN was selling, which is all SEC, all the time.

They would have had much better ratings for the final if they had matched UGA and Bama in the semi. That way the people who loathe the SEC would tune in to cheer for whoever won the other semi.

But ESPN got exactly what they wanted...an "all SEC final." Who cares about ratings, right?

sure in the short run they lock in their dominance.

However, in the long run, they are creating a regional following. This is why the ratings are down and they have been going down for a while. Both TerryD and Domer predicted the demise of the ACC below, like it’s no loss. It is a loss if there are huge areas of the country not interested in College Football.

The NFL has a draft and a salary cap to keep interest across the league. They also spread the teams across the country. None of that exist for College Football. So if you can only join 1 Conference or be 1 Independent, in the long run they will pay the price too. Even if they don’t want to admit it.

nascar went from regional to national and back to regional and CFB is doing the same. in both cases they built off a hungry national tv partner (ESPN), then the money got so big and they went crazy. The money focused on the big draws and began ignoring everyone else. In nascar it was Gordon, Johnson and a couple others but basically 2 teams had the money to compete (Hendricks and JGR). CFB has focused on the SEC and Big. Thus the casual fan is bored with the same teams always winning and fans of others have tuned out. Thus back to their roots.

Being a regional sport is the effect of fans nationally losing interest because of a lack of competition.

now it’s empty seat after empty seat, when I saw tickets being sold for $500 plus to get in during the peak.

their britches, with ticket prices going through the roof (thanks, Bruton Smith, for your greedy PSL concept), and taking races away from tracks that built the sport (N. Wilkesboro & Rockingham) and moving those races to cookie-cutter tracks in places where NASCAR was almost unheard of. The "Chase for the Championship" was an attempt to compete with the NFL. It failed miserably. I knew that when they began to air ads for Bristol night race tickets, the downslide had begun. I once went to as many as 10 races a year, and religiously watched all other races on TV - even the Busch. Today, I couldn't even tell you who won the championship in 2021.
[Post edited by WVHokie84 at 01/15/2022 02:23AM]

early 00’s. The numbers to sponsor went up about 10 times, it felt like over night because TV networks elevated the exposure. However the culture/people that caused the interest started to erode with it. People simply got angry at the GREED/price gouging and lack of caring for the people who brought them to the dance.

This is happening to College Football and if they don’t find a way to keep this a National Sport, where many schools can win a National Championship, those stands are going to continue to empty. The erosion is slow at first, but that tipping point to fast can show up over night and they better remember that. As NASCAR has proven, once the slide down is fast, it’s really hard to stop.
[Post edited by Stech at 01/15/2022 06:27AM]

I don't like it. I don't have any wish for the ACC to be broken up like the Big East was.

I just think that is what is going to happen, not that I want it to.

The players are going to be held to be university employees and it sure looks like two super conferences are going to emerge.

ND has no valid business reason to abandon independence now by joining the ACC.

Why join now when it will have to join a super conference in a few years?

Why not negotiate a new/better TV deal in 2025, ride out independence and be ready for what results ?

The ACC's problems are self inflicted and too deep to fix.

I think that even if ND football joined the ACC tonight, the result in ten years will be the same





[Post edited by TerryD at 01/11/2022 9:12PM]