Television ratings for Cotton Bowl much worse than last year’s semifinal

Preliminary ratings for Year Two of the College Football Playoff semifinals were down significantly on ESPN Thursday night, seemingly confirming a year’s worth of speculation that playing the games on New Year’s Eve would have a negative effect. The first semifinal final season, the Rose Bowl with OR and Florida State on New Year’s Day, earned a 15.5. 1 Clemson and No. 4 Oklahoma kicked off while many were still at work at 4 p.m. ET, and the Cotton Bowl between No. 2 Alabama and No. 3 Michigan State began as others were getting ready for a night out. Last year’s comparable semifinal game, which aired on January 1, scored a 15.3, meaning it dropped nearly 38 percent.

Neither of Thursday’s matchups was especially competitive in the second half, but the ratings results clearly suggest that many college football fans chose traditional New Year’s Eve festivities over watching the contests that decided who plays in the January 11 championship contest on ESPN. The games were on New Year’s Eve because the conferences agreed to keep the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day, whether they’re semifinals or not. Compared to last year’s New Year’s Day semifinals, this was up 67%, 29% and 58%, respectively.

“It’s just not appropriate to talk until all the results are in”, he said Friday.

According to the Sports Business Journal, ESPN executives are trying to get next year’s semifinal games, which are also scheduled for December 31, moved to Saturday, Jan 2. The face-off between Heisman Trophy profitable quarterbacks Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston within the Rose Bowl drew 28 million viewers. Alabama routed Michigan State 38-0 in a game that was pretty much over midway through the third quarter.

The average margin of victory in the New Year’s Six bowl games was 24.2 points, almost double what it was for the 28 bowls played between December 19 and December 30 (13.6). The game started at 1 p.m. Pacific on a day that isn’t officially considered a holiday.

For now the system calls for the semis to be held on December 31 again next season, but Thursday’s poor ratings already have reignited the debate.

Of course, the boring nature of the games had a lot to do with the year-to-year declines. In all likelihood, they will continue to reflect that on an annual basis as long as the CFP continues to cling to New Year’s Eve as the date for its semifinal games. The second game was worse: 5.8 million people saw one or more of 464,000 tweets. But Dec. 31 is a Saturday.

But public opinion, at this juncture, is not good in regard to December 31 playoff games. Next season the semifinals will once more be performed on New Year’s Eve, this time within the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, and the Peach Bowl in Atlanta.