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ESPN pushing to move CFB semifinals from New Year's Eve to Jan. 2 this year

RollWave35

RollWave35

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But the playoff committee is having none of it.

Apparently the Rose and Sugar Bowls are guaranteed New Year's Day slots, so this year's semifinals (the Cotton and Orange Bowls) are scheduled for Dec. 31. ESPN feels like doing them on New Year's Eve will hurt the bottom line, and is pushing to move them to Jan. 2 instead.

A tweet from a SportsBusiness Journal reporter:

Michael Smith @SmittySBJSBD
ESPN urges @CFBPlayoff to move semifinals next season off New Year's Eve to Jan. 2, 2016, a Sat. w/ little TV competition. CFP holding firm.

Seems like common sense to move them - doing them NYE night seems like a terrible idea.
 
Smart pre-emptive move by ESPN too because NYE will be on a Friday in 2016...so go ahead and set a precedent to move it ahead.

I hate having an important game that starts at essentially 845pm on NYE.
 
Go said:
Smart pre-emptive move by ESPN too because NYE will be on a Friday in 2016...so go ahead and set a precedent to move it ahead.

I hate having an important game that starts at essentially 845pm on NYE.
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It would only be for 2015, not 2016, since it lines up well with the calendar this year (Sat. Jan. 2nd is relatively open, sports-wise). Nowhere to move the games in 2016 (January 2nd is a Sunday, and would have a full NFL week 17 schedule). Full article link is now open below. ESPN is pushing, but CFP is pushing back even harder.

http://m.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2015/01/26/Events-and-Attractions/CFP.aspx
 
Move the games CFP. It's not that hard. Helps with attendance too since people will be able to travel given the three-day weekend (or three-and-a-half really given NYE)
 
You'll lose casual fans for the semis if they stay on NYE.

This should have been done upfront and not now.
 
2 NY6 bowls on NYE (fiesta and peach) plus throw in another to round out the day (alamo or holiday or something)
2 NY6 bowls on NY (rose and sugar) plus other NY bowls earlier in the day (outback, capital one)
2 playoff games on Jan 2 (cotton and orange)

each day builds a little bit in quality of teams and importance of games. this seems like a no brainer and a great 3 days of football.
 
Why not just play the Orange and Cotton on Jan 1? That will teach the rose bowl a lesson as it will be an irrelevant game anyway.
 
Atlanta Deacon said:
Why not just play the Orange and Cotton on Jan 1? That will teach the rose bowl a lesson as it will be an irrelevant game anyway.
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ESPN has the rights to all 6 games, how do you propose doing that with overlapping games?
 
Clay Travis on Fox...

Let's be clear about this -- putting the playoff games on New Year's Eve is an unmitigated disaster.

With that in mind ESPN has made a smart suggestion -- why not move the college football playoff games to Saturday, January 2nd this upcoming year? That way the two games are played on a SATURDAY -- you know, the day college football generally plays its games -- and the audience able to watch them is as large as possible. (Of course the best result would be to play these games on January 1st every year, but god forbid the Rose Bowl have to be played on a non-January 1st date. The Rose Bowl is to to college football what the moderately attractive girl in a sorority who thinks she's much more attractive than she actually is is to sorority life -- totally destructive and not worth the time it takes to placate.)

To bolster the case to move the games ESPN is forecasting a double digit ratings decline on New Year's Eve. Why? Because it's New Year's Eve, already the most stressful day of the year for most people. And, to repeat, a work day. So what's the problem with moving the games to Saturday in the upcoming year? According to the Sports Business Journal college football's power brokers are balking at moving the games. Their goal is to start a yearly tradition of playing the games on New Year's Eve -- except for when the Rose Bowl hosts the game every third year when the games can take place on the day they should take place every year, on New Year's Day. Why do college football's leaders want to start a yearly tradition of playing the games on New Year's Eve? Because they're idiots bowing down to the Rose Bowl while trying to pretend this idea makes sense.

Can we pause for a moment now and say what tons of college football administrators and media would all like to say but can't because they don't own the site that they write for -- Fuck the Rose Bowl. Why does college football need the Rose Bowl at all? Why should the Rose Bowl be able to hold all of college football hostage? It makes zero sense. Sure, the Rose Bowl is in a great town and it's a majestic setting for a football game, but the area immediately around the Rose Bowl is kind of a dump. And it isn't that close to anywhere you want to spend a lot of time in Los Angeles. My point is pretty simple, if Los Angeles put on a bowl game at the newly proposed NFL stadium, would any less people travel to LA to watch a football game there? Of course not. The Rose Bowl's a soft six that thinks it's a ten. So why does college football continue to genuflect at the Rose Bowl's altar? It's not 1954 anymore.
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More: http://www.foxsports.com/college-fo...ball-playoff-games-from-new-year-s-eve-012615
 
Moving the games to a Saturday afternoon and night, Jan 2 or Saturday late afternoon and early evening, Dec 31 make sense when the calendar works that way. Maybe set up the schedule so the Rose and Sugar don't host the semis when Jan 1 is on Friday or Sunday, given that they'd be moving in Monday due to the NFL anyway.
 
Atlanta Deacon said:
Why not just play the Orange and Cotton on Jan 1? That will teach the rose bowl a lesson as it will be an irrelevant game anyway.
Click to expand...

The Orange, Sugar, Rose, Cotton and Fiesta all used to be on Jan. 1. NBC used to have the Fiesta, Rose, and Orange Bowls, CBS had the Cotton and ABC had the Sugar.
 
The Orange Bowl was played on NYE at 8 PM and received the second-highest rating of all the non-semifinal bowl games with a 5.0.

People will watch.
 
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