College Football Playoff semifinal game times moved, but it won’t help
The College Football Playoff committee announced the start times for the semifinal games have been moved, but it’s nowhere near the change that was needed.
Under some fire and criticism for last season’s New Year’s Eve semifinal games (which began at 4pm and 8pm ET), the College Football Playoff committee today announced in a press release that a change was being made in light of some of the ratings slump.
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Hooray!
This year the games – the Fiesta Bowl and Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl – will start at 3pm and 7pm…still on New Year’s Eve.
So for you on the west coast, prepare yourself for having to be awake, alert and ready for a big game by….
Noon.
Never mind the cheers, this was nothing more than a cosmetic move designed to presumably show how flexible the committee is, and how they hear the voice of the fans. Hogwash and nonsense. They only hear the voice of the advertisers, who should have spoken up more fervently.
So now the late game has a chance of ending before the stroke of midnight. Yippee. The entire crux of the problem was that the games were happening on New Year’s Eve at all – a night when most are preparing for, driving to, and becoming inebriated at parties – not perched in their easy chairs, eyes glued to the tube.
The only television most want to watch on New Year’s Eve is the countdown to the kissing and confetti, not football.
The playoff semifinals should be a culmination to the bowl season, not a pit-stop on the way to the Taxslayer and Cactus Bowls. How this fact eludes the powers who run this system is beyond comprehension.
If the committee really cared about catering to the needs of the fans (as well as their own advertising revenue), they’d figure out a way to make the New Year’s Six become the pinnacle of the college football season, with the playoff semifinals dropping the mic on everything else. Instead we’re left with the most important games of the year (outside of the championship) clashing with a night meant for something other than sports.
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Do us a favor, committee members, do more than a Daylight Savings Time trick with the game times if you really want to make a difference. Surprise us all by actually having a plan other than stubbornness.