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Some telling quotes from this article:
While it's nave to think the games will be ignored and won't attract viewers, especially in traditional college football hotbeds, the current set-up does little to lure in casual fans in large and customarily pro-sports markets.
Comments from Jarred Grant, the director of nightlife at The Miami Beach Edition:
Grant estimates that there will be 70,000 tourists in South Beach this weekend who won't see a single play from either of the two semis. He says that Basement likely won't put the game on its televisions because it would take away from the party atmosphere.
The biggest thing that they are losing out on is the biggest demographic there is: ages 17 to 35," says Jarred Grant, the director of nightlife at The Miami Beach Edition. "No one ages 17 to 35 is home on New Year's Eve. It's going to be erased from the attention of a large sector of the population.
Comments from a restaurant/bar owner in Boston and Bethesda:
Kathy Sidell owns and operates four restaurants in and around Boston and another in Bethesda, Md. She says that she has gotten no calls about whether her establishments will be showing the games. "They're not a factor at all in any planning," she says. "I'd imagine they'll be background noise."
Is this what we want? For the first round of the playoffs to be 'background noise'? To disregard casual fans (or even fans who don't have a rooting interest in the game)? I hope the numbers are so terrible that change is forced.
Actually, I think that sometimes that S&C coach can make a difference. Back in the day, we sent our staff to Nebraska to get some pointers as we were striving to become more relevant on the football scene, and adopted some of their methods, which, if I recall correctly, included an emphasis on strength and conditioning. I think it paid off for us then. Like most things, however, I believe you need to keep up with the times and cutting edges of all things coaching to stay relevant. I think it was time for VT to move on, and I look forward to seeing what new blood will do for us on this front.
I can't believe that there was playoff game at 4pm EST on a work day (1pm out west - good luck getting many viewers there). I would not take a vacation day to watch a game that isn't the Hokies. Did not watch a down of the second game. Would have watched every down if the game was played today (Saturday). Most of my friends and coworkers agreed.
EDIT: wanted to add this poll from Stewart Mandel. Anyone who follows Mandel on twitter is a pretty serious CFB fan. If about a third of CFB fans are unable to watch the game (not just casual viewers) - that's a problem.
Let's find out ... Will New Year's Eve conflicts prevent you from watching one or both semifinals this year?— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) December 11, 2015
Never heard of him, but I'd say he should be in the conversation.
Notre Dame is almost always overrated.
I don't see it changing because the Rose Bowl isn't going to budge from its spot.
Rose bowl and Sugar Bowl have contracts in place to play on NYD, so there's not much the CFP could do. As I understood it, ESPN wanted to put the playoff games on Saturday (today), but CFP wanted to build a cultural phenomenon and try to 'own' NYE.
I know there are a lot of young people here, but I can't believe no one has yet posted/considered Tony Paige....
Well, when you run the same exact play 3-4 times, any defense (even Tulsa) catches on. My question is, with Hodges being a former stud QB prospect, why not throw in the occasional pass? I'm no coach, but know enough to know you need to mix things up to keep a defense honest.
If we are going to run those plays, we have to keep the defense honest with a pass from the wildcatturkey guy once in a while. It seems less than optimal to broadcast our move like we do.
That "non-P5 opponents" qualifier is a bit disingenuous. Notre Dame may not be P5, but they were ranked #8 going into that game. The B1G can easily point to anOSU dominating them. That, combined with Michigan's complete annihilation of the third best SEC team (going by rank) gives them a pretty decent counter-argument.
On the other hand, the Big12 has no real defense, against your point, or on the field.
Nobody watches commercials. But it's still ad revenue that supports the whole endeavor of the CFP. ABC sells the ad space with a pitch of "look how many people will see your commercial." That's the way ads have been sold since the dawn of television. And a 36% dip in ratings hurts the network's pitch.
I dunno. Remember, the Rose Bowl got left out of the Bowl Alliance because they refused to break from the Big 10/Pac-10 matchup. They came to their senses real quick when they say how successful the BA was, came back to the table and the BCS was born. The CFP has even more leverage than the BA did, and I guarantee you if the Rose Bowl's refussal to negotiate on date harms the bottom line of the CFP, they will leverage the hell out of the Rose Bowl.
I think you're confusing the CFP with the the NCAA.
Yep. There are a lot of viewers that are casually keeping up with the game. They definitely aren't watching commercials.
The CFP is too gutless to do that, just like everything else involving the sport right now.
Unfortunately I could see the narrative easily being steered in the direction of "see!! People don't like the playoff. It devalues the season and makes NYE/New Years day not as important"
Which is of course false, but I could see it happening.
Interesting article on this:
http://www.campusrush.com/college-football-playoff-new-years-eve-1532356...
It is odd. I didn't think the match ups were all that lopsided on paper (although I was not surprise in the Stanford result).
36% is a pretty significant figure. I am sure more people than can be accounted for did watch in groups/ at parties.
With that said, watching commercials is the last thing I am doing even if I am watching a football game at a NYE party. This isn't the Super Bowl we are talking about here.
You mean this Ford:
Sorry.....I just love this pic
I love QB battles!
As long as they're in the offseason!
But...but...we CAN'T disrupt the ROSE BOWL, can we!?!? What will we ever do if we can't watch a PAC12 team whup a BigTen team mid-afternoon?! /s
Dude...
36%. That's not getting explained away. Especially not to the advertisers who keep this whole thing afloat.
I haven't seen a report about Sumlin's firing, but with Chip Kelly now available, someone somewhere is going to get fired.
I don't trust the ratings issued the next day. With New Years Eve going on I think many people watched the games as groups, game watch parties that turned into New Years Parties. Also not having anOSU and FSU in the playoff is going to hurt the ratings.
They will if the alternative is getting kicked out of the CFP.
This was my opinion when we hired loeffler and searels