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College Football Playoff Officials Should Tell the NFL and ESPN to Kick Rocks

By Caleb Calhoun

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It has barely been two weeks since the first ever College Football Playoff national championship was played, and already ESPN is forgetting about the hand that fed it.

The first ever College Football Playoff was a huge success for the network. The games brought in ratings at an unprecedented level, including the other New Year’s Six games.

Then, the national championship was the highest rated game in live television history for ESPN.

Yet, somehow, ESPN thinks it is okay to force the College Football Playoff officials to move the dates of some of the games in the coming future.

At issue is if they can move the New Year’s Six games that are on New Year’s Eve and if they can move the national championship game that comes on a Monday night. Why? Well, ESPN has to make more room for a greedy NFL looking to expand its playoffs and cut into the profits of everybody else.

Okay, so the NFL is a capitalist organization. That’s their job. And ESPN wants to make as much off of that as possible if the playoffs are indeed expanded, and they also don’t want to compete with other countdowns on New Year’s Eve.

At least the latter reason is not for some greedy way to cave to the NFL; it actually shows genuine care for the popularity of college football.

But the sport is growing at a rapid rate. And part of the growth of that sport, which in some cases was a revival this year, is due to the success of the New Year’s Six and putting elite bowl games on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day again. That is what made college football so popular to begin with.

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So the College Football Playoff officials should act in a capitalist way as well. Why in the world would they cave to the NFL and ESPN? The ball is in their court.

After all, there is no way ESPN won’t televise these bowl games. And if the NFL wants to be greedy and try to compete with the College Football Playoff National Championship by putting a playoff game on that same night, go ahead  and let them. Call their bluff.

There is no way that the league would be that stupid because it knows that scheduling an extra game that night would be a useless cut in possible extra profits. So the NFL, as it always does, is attempting to play hardball.

And I say let them try. College football is not more popular than the NFL, but it will win this fight. For ESPN to potentially cave to the NFL and looking right now to cave to other networks is beyond weak.

If the NFL schedules a game on the same night as the national championship and the CFP date doesn’t move, that will simply be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for the league. It already cut into college football Thursday, it is trying to do it on Saturday, and now it wants to do it in bowl games.

But the profits won’t be there, and people will be upset with the NFL for trying it. People will also be upset because a majority of fans don’t even want to see an expanded playoff.

With all of that happening, Mark Cuban’s prediction could come true. The NFL could indeed eventually get too greedy and price itself out due to overexposure.

Why would it risk that just to have a game on the same night as the College Football Playoff national championship? It wouldn’t.

So CFP officials, let the NFL huff and puff all it wants. You will win this fight because you have the cards and the leverage. And if there is one thing that will unhinge NFL owners, it’s not having leverage in every situation.

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