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  1. #1
    SoonerFans.com Elite Member Jacie's Avatar
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    Thumbs down Why the CFP is playing on New Year's Eve . . . and why that sux

    Why are the playoff semifinals on New Year's Eve again?

    Dan Wetzel
    Yahoo Sports


    The College Football Playoff semifinals are being staged this year on New Year’s Eve.

    Yes, New Year’s Eve.

    This is confusing to everyone because New Year’s Day is a great time for a couple big games and New Year’s Eve is a horrible one – at least if you are one of the many people who A) have to work, or B) have other plans that night. In other words, tens of millions of you.

    So why is this happening? Why is college football staging its semifinals at a time that everyone predicts will cause fewer people to watch?

    Here’s the honest answer: the people who run college football don’t care about you. At all. Like, not one single bit.

    It may not make sense, but that’s the answer.

    “We’re establishing a new tradition,” playoff executive director Bill Hancock said. “We're going to change the paradigm of New Year’s Eve.”

    Except, no one is trying to establish a new tradition here. They are honoring two of the oldest traditions in America … self-indulgence and cronyism.

    The conference commissioners who run the sport may not care about or even consider you, the fan, but they do care deeply about bowl executives, usually old friends who have been plying them with free everything – golf, gifts, booze, hotels, Caribbean cruises, you name it – for decades.

    They really, really love those guys. Love them so much that when they designed the playoff they made sure, out of the goodness of their hearts, to continue outsourcing their most profitable games to them.

    They love all bowl games but they love none quite like the Rose Bowl.

    As such, they would never dare make the Rose Bowl move its kickoff time from 5 p.m. ET on Jan. 1 – you know, that perfect time to watch a big game. That’s when the start of the semifinal doubleheader should always be played. One out of every three years, when the Rose Bowl is a host, it is.

    Yet in the other two years the Rose Bowl still gets the best time slot even if the game, such as this year, can only be considered “big” if you’re from Iowa. Meanwhile, the Sugar Bowl has somehow been granted exclusivity to the equally coveted primetime slot on New Year’s Day, even if it’s hosting Ole Miss-Oklahoma State and the five losses between them.

    Oklahoma-Clemson and Michigan State-Alabama, the games that actually matter, get the less desirable times the day before.

    Again, this makes no sense. It’s the reality though. In college football the Rose Bowl gets to call the shots. It just does. In any other sport, or any other business, executives would either tell them to move or just crush them with counter programming.

    Instead, college football decision-makers tell the fans to get lost while gleefully allowing the bowls to lead them around by the nose.

    Conference commissioners are like that desperate guy in every Cialis commercial, blithely going for boring hikes through the foliage or freezing while holding hands in his and her tubs overlooking a valley ("You want me to take a bath in the damn woods?"). It’s all in the pitiful hope that their favorite bowl executive will give them that look that says the time is right.

    Oh Rose Bowl, of course I’ll kick off a semifinal at 1 p.m. on a workday on the West Coast. And yes, I’ll absolutely not care about people, mostly younger, who have long-established plans or work that evening – in restaurants or transportation or staffed-up hospitals or wherever. I know you're not a school, a conference or in any way part of the NCAA, but let's go have a long, meaningful talk over a hot cup of tea.

    The other option would be to just grant the Rose and Sugar Bowl permanent semifinal hosting status, maintaining New Year’s Day as the day for the semifinals. That would be true love, but it would also prevent spreading the graft out to four other bowl sites.

    Extra palms. Extra grease.

    Don’t blame ESPN. It knows its ratings will drop. The network fought this originally – literally stunned it was even a consideration. Later it lobbied to move, for this year only, the semifinals to Saturday, Jan. 2.

    The NFL is staging all its Week 17 games on Sunday, Jan. 3, so Saturday is wide open. It's absolutely perfect if you care about, say, trying to make it as convenient as possible for fans to either watch on TV or travel to a game.

    "We understand and appreciate their interest in this," Hancock said in a statement last January. “The fact is that we have started a new tradition … we're not interested in changing.”

    Don't worry, Saturday night they'll give you the Motel 6 Cactus Bowl instead. So there's that.

    Look, these guys aren’t really in tune with anything but the hardest core segment of their fan base – the fanatical booster that will find a way. And, yes, many people will still watch. I'm one of them. It’s easy for me to be there though because this is my job. Most really big-time fans will find time too. Some others will – those who usually stay in on New Year’s Eve (then again, if you stay in on New Year’s Eve, you also stay in on New Year’s Day too).

    Many won’t though and that’s rough for them. Some will try and fail to carve out eight hours of football viewing under relationship duress. Some will be stuck at nightclubs or weddings or a couples' function. Others just have to earn an honest living. These people are a mystery to the commissioners, whose work entails watching college football and therefore seem to assume everyone can watch while on the job. Look, Mr. Police Officer, just stream it on your tablet. Those drunk drivers can handle themselves.

    As for entertainment options, for these guys, New Year’s Eve has long been about whatever bowl director is springing for the single malts and medium rares. Conceptually, a party is being at some other old person’s house where the TV can easily show the game, especially since they can’t seem to figure out what channel Dick Clark is on anyway.

    “It might be a great way to bring more women to college football,” Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany reasoned to the Chicago Tribune. “We can build our audience.”

    OK, then. Delany is the same guy who runs a Midwest-based league but didn’t want any semifinals played in the Midwest because he has too much love for the old bowls and old bowl directors in the South and West. Forget seeking a competitive advantage for his teams or bringing big-event revenue to the region or caring about how costly the travel is for his own league’s fans.

    Really, this is your fault. You should have planned accordingly. They warned you by running that commercial with Jimmy Kimmel and a host of characters sadly singing "Auld Lang Syne" at a New Year’s Eve party.

    It’s a weird spot and not just because, as SB Nation pointed out, the UCLA mascot, Joe Bruin, tries to pick up a blonde party-goer while also having his arm wrapped around his steady, Josephine Bruin (now this is an adventurous way to ring in 2016).

    Stranger is there are no TVs at the party in the commercial. In an effort to get you to watch the College Football Playoff on New Year's Eve, no one is watching the College Football Playoff on New Year's Eve.

    Apparently Jimmy Kimmel has other things to do, too.

  2. #2
    Sooner All-Big XII-2-1+1-1+1
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    Re: Why the CFP is playing on New Year's Eve . . . and why that sux


  3. #3
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    Re: Why the CFP is playing on New Year's Eve . . . and why that sux

    "We understand and appreciate their interest in this," Hancock said in a statement last January. “The fact is that we have started a new tradition … we're not interested in changing.”

    wow, what an egotistical *uck...
    How do you know if you get there, if you don't know where you are going?..oh and I had 1,713 post on the "other board"..I hate being a rookie again!

  4. #4
    Stayatworkdad yermom's Avatar
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    Re: Why the CFP is playing on New Year's Eve . . . and why that sux

    I don't really understand how they make more money by not playing on Saturday. Playing during business hours is a bitch.

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    SoonerFans.com Elite Member achiro's Avatar
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    Re: Why the CFP is playing on New Year's Eve . . . and why that sux

    People are going to watch the semifinals where they would skip a "normal" bowl game during a bad time.
    I would agree with you but then we'd both be wrong.

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    Re: Why the CFP is playing on New Year's Eve . . . and why that sux

    Especially in the middle of the day!!!

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    Re: Why the CFP is playing on New Year's Eve . . . and why that sux

    "Bring more women to football?" Most women who enjoy football know about it, the other women know about it, and couldn't care less. I know both types. There are plenty of men, many the younger generations, that care nothing about sports because they are into computer games. Why are both play off games on the same day? DUMB, DUMB, DUMB!!!!

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    Sooner All-Big XII-2-1+1-1+1 Soonerfan88's Avatar
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    Re: Why the CFP is playing on New Year's Eve . . . and why that sux

    I have to work & no, it isn't possible to just take the day off or leave early. Some jobs have to be done and the holiday schedules were set months ago. I will easily miss the first half so hopefully OU will be comfortably in the lead when I turn it on.

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    Re: Why the CFP is playing on New Year's Eve . . . and why that sux

    I am fortunate enough to be able to take half a day off work to watch the game. However, being a relatively new employee with limited time off accrued thus far, I am pissed off to to no end that I have to do so when I have New Year's Day off entirely on my employer's dime.

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    Re: Why the CFP is playing on New Year's Eve . . . and why that sux

    PS O/T On my way home from work tonight, as usual drove past Qualcomm, where the Poinsettia Bowl was getting underway. Awesome fireworks display going off.

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    Re: Why the CFP is playing on New Year's Eve . . . and why that sux

    Luckily, I am semi-retired, but I can remember that when I had a full time job, I never got off early on New Year's Eve. The employers figured that the celebration was at mid-night so there was no reason to let people off early. A real bummer for people that want to see this important OU game.

  12. #12

    Re: Why the CFP is playing on New Year's Eve . . . and why that sux

    Each bowl is run by a small committee of people who control millions of dollars in their "non-profit" activity. That money is regularly fed to coaches, athletic directors, conference decision makers and NCAA influential decision makers. Several years ago reports of cruises by coaches, scholarships for family members of key people (the then big 12 commissioner's grandchild had a scholarship in pheonix provided by the Fiesta bowl), and tons of other money and "favors" were paid out. As long as these few people have a stream of money to funnel to the key decision makers in various methods these key decision makers will continue to favor "Tradition" (as they call it).

    With all of that, where does the fan sit? Literally in the end zone! And no playoff game is going to upset this wonderful system.

    In this system the bowl committee members make off like bandits, the NCAA and athletic decision makers receive benefits that would be clear ethical violations in any other business, and ** the fans are at the bottom of the 'list of concerns'.

    Personally, I have come to believe the bowl system is one of the most corrupt "systems" in any athletic organization anywhere with the possible exception of the World Cup Soccer organization (and I don't care about them)...

    Why does the NCAA allow over a billion dollars of money to be in the hands of and under the control of a bunch of bowl committees? Because the people in charge of making these decisions continue to be paid off.

  13. #13
    Stayatworkdad yermom's Avatar
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    Re: Why the CFP is playing on New Year's Eve . . . and why that sux

    I wouldn't leave out the Olympic committee on that list

    It's weird that other bowls are after the playoff games.

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    Sooner All-Big XII-2-1+1-1+1 sendbaht's Avatar
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    Re: Why the CFP is playing on New Year's Eve . . . and why that sux

    I am retired and the game starts at 4am where I live so easy for me to watch. Will enjoy some hot coffee and watch our Sooners....then a nice breakfast for the Bama game.

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    SoonerFans.com Elite Member swardboy's Avatar
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    Re: Why the CFP is playing on New Year's Eve . . . and why that sux

    Quote Originally Posted by yermom View Post
    I wouldn't leave out the Olympic committee on that list

    It's weird that other bowls are after the playoff games.
    YES, it just boggles the mind that these games aren't in the penultimate position of the schedule. Plus, it would take the luster off "my" bowl game if it were after the the play-off bowls. What a reminder that it was an also-ran event.
    "I'm going to request that you stop posting in this thread." - circa 2008
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  16. #16
    Sooner All-Big XII-2-1+1-1+1
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    Re: Why the CFP is playing on New Year's Eve . . . and why that sux

    Oh not to mention the fact that New Years Eve in Miami is 300% higher on all prices.

    for 2 people
    Flying to Miami
    Staying 2 nights in 3 star hotel
    Dinners in Miami
    Tickets to the game
    3500++

    watching the game on TV....priceless

  17. #17
    SoonerFans.com Elite Member Flagstaffsooner's Avatar
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    Re: Why the CFP is playing on New Year's Eve . . . and why that sux

    I get a vacation day. My employer knows that I willb e $hitty faced drunk after the game.
    posse member

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    Re: Why the CFP is playing on New Year's Eve . . . and why that sux

    If I were a Clemson fan, and my team is ranked the number one team, and didn't get the prime time slot, I would be furious!!! Shows you what type of SUCK the Alabama program has!

  19. #19
    SoonerFans.com Elite Member Jacie's Avatar
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    Re: Why the CFP is playing on New Year's Eve . . . and why that sux

    TV ratings for New Year's Eve CFP semifinals drop 40 percent
    Nick Bromberg
    30 minutes ago
    Dr. Saturday

    The television ratings drop that everyone was expecting with the semifinals of the College Football Playoff being played on New Year's Eve happened.

    Ratings for the Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl, played at 4 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. ET Thursday night, were down approximately 40 percent from the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl a year ago. Why? The Rose and Sugar Bowls, the first CFP semifinals, were played on New Year's Day.

    Overnights: 9.9 for Cotton and 9.7 for Orange. Last year's semis were 15.5 for the early game and 15.3 for the late one.

    Considering the circumstances, you can say the Orange Bowl rating is pretty good. The game started at 1 p.m. Pacific on a day that isn't officially considered a holiday. The Cotton Bowl rating wasn't helped by Alabama's 21-point third quarter to salt away Michigan State. Clemson won the Orange Bowl and will face the Crimson Tide on Jan. 11 for the national title.

    The semifinals are rotated among the "New Year's Six" bowl games – the Rose, Sugar, Peach, Fiesta, Cotton and Orange Bowls. Each of the six bowl games gets a semifinal every three seasons. The 2015 semifinals were moved to New Year's Eve because of the Rose and Sugar Bowls.

    The two longtime games wanted to keep their spots on New Year's Day. The CFP acquiesced to their request. That means the semifinals (the Fiesta and Peach Bowls) will be held on New Year's Eve again in 2016 before moving to New Year's Day again in 2018 when the Rose and Sugar Bowls start the second rotation.

    Will the ratings drop cause the CFP to reconsider the strategy of playing on New Year's Day every three years? Not any time soon. The dates of the semifinals are locked in through the end of the 2025 season.

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    SoonerFans.com Elite Member Okie35's Avatar
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    Re: Why the CFP is playing on New Year's Eve . . . and why that sux

    To be honest watching these bowls and I REALLY HATE to say it but the BCS got it right. These games aren't Watchable ... Will we be the only team that at least kept it close by halftime...
    "If you're going to be at Oklahoma, you need to win, you need to contribute, you need to do all the little things to make this team succeed.'" T-Lew

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