Clemson Blowout Draws Lowest TV Ratings for CFP Title Game

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2019/01/08/sports/ncaafootball/ap-fbc-cfp-national-championship-tv-ratings.html

“…14.6 overnight rating for ESPN across its multiple-channel broadcast, the lowest-rated title game in the 5-year-old postseason system.”

NY Times says it was due to the game being a blowout, for me I didn’t watch because I am tired of the same old teams, with the same economic advantages playing in the title game. We need a Cinderella team, a Rocky Balboa shot at the title, something…anything. Tired of watching the same old, same old.

This exclusion system has got to go.

10 Likes

Yep

3 Likes

lol Lets not attribute the low ratings to the score; let’s be honest NY Times and realize that no one wants to see those two play AGAIN, but their fans!

6 Likes

I was watching the Rockets instead. Better game against top teams in the West.

5 Likes

My strategy is working. Next year they won’t break 14 if it’s Bama or Clemson vs just about anyone else. But honestly, I WOULD watch Bama or Clemson vs Army.

1 Like

CFP committee response:
image

1 Like

cough expand cough

I think most assumed Alabama would win and missed a great story.

1 Like

College football is regional and local. Trying to expand it by playing it in random neutral stadiums 2500 miles away from teams home stadiums and trying to make it a super bowl experience is not a good move. It is not like te NFL where they have made the super bowl an event for everyone, as NFL fans will watch their team or their conferences team.

Even if SEC guy or ACC guy watched the game (which most do not because college loyalty is insane and what Georgia fan or North Carolina fan will root for either team) Pac 12 guy, Big 10 guy and Big 12 guy plus all of the ‘small’ conference fans have zero vested interest in either team.

Yes an expanded playoff would be amazing and would create more buzz, but title games usually will have just the fans of those teams. Add in that this is the 4th time in as many years that these two played each other and those ratings were higher than I thought they would be.

I tuned in during the 3rd quarter for about 5 minutes and they panned the crowd a few times and the empty seats everywhere, red so they looked like bama fans, and the chunks of missing people in the upper decks should be concerning as well.

2 Likes

Yes we did it!!! Now, I will continue for the next umpteen years until UH is included…

until all schools really do have an equal shot.

2 Likes

First of all, this rating will still be one of the highest rated cable telecasts ever. Second, why assume with an expanded playoff that Alabama and Clemson aren’t in the title? I can’t remember the last time I saw two teams clearly this much better than everybody else. Sure upsets can happen, but UCF and Washington would have been real long shots to knock them off. Don’t think its solid logic to think because a 4 team playoff didn’t make the championship game more popular that an 8 team would. The extra money would come from the quarter final games.

As others have said, the problem is that this game has no buzz like the Super Bowl or the Final Four. They only promote the game for a week, then its on cable tv on a Monday night.

1 Like

Ooo, me not watching the game worked. :laughing::laughing:

1 Like

I don’t think anyone thinks Alabama or Clemson would not make the championship game with 8 or even 16 teams. Many people are just fed up with the current system of exclusion.

But with those two, it’s like watching a rerun so that would also explain the dip in ratings.

1 Like

In case you didn’t get to watch the game yesterday, ESPN will show the replay of Bama/Clemson game on 01/06/2020.

1 Like

Tell ESPN, this Coog don’t care and I am still not watching…

Definitely a lot of variables at play here, however, the primary variable was the 2 teams playing.

Bama/Clemson has been the championship game 2 out of the last 3 years. The one year it wasn’t, it was a playoff game. Let’s also not forget that Bama has played in the championship game like 7 out of the last 9 games (including BCS era). Although it’s true to say not much more than a handful of schools have won a national title in the modern era; it’s safe to say that people still want some change. The worst ratings I can remember from a title game were from the Bama/LSU rematch.

The game also was 31-16 at halftime and Clemson scored 13 unanswered in the 3rd quarter. Although a lessor variable, the game was a channel changer for some at halftime and for most not that far after.

That’s not what those of us who want expansion are after. We’re after a real, competitive playoff. With 8 teams we get closer. 16, we get a guarantee that the winner is the best in CFB that year. If the same two or three teams end up in the finals year after year, fine, at least they will have come by it honest.

It has no buzz because the team in the finals didn’t come by it honest…see above. It was hyped like crazy for the past week. Buzz isn’t the problem. People realizing it’s a rigged system (as far as who gets to play) is the problem.

1 Like

Ratings may be down, but the game still had amazing ratings, I doubt the networks and advertisers are worried.