Oh.
That's not good.
Clemson’s 35-31 win in Monday night’s College Football Playoff championship rematch drew an overnight household rating of 15.3. That number is down compared to last year’s title game, when the Alabama-Clemson clash drew a 15.8 rating. The inaugural College Football Playoff final in 2015 earned a household rating of 18.5.
You would never know that from reading just sportswriters. This was the most thrilling national championship of eighteen that Fox's Stewart Mandel has covered. It was flat-out thrilling, that's for dang sure--when the winning touchdown was scored there was one second left on the clock.
Clemson’s 35-31 win in Monday night’s College Football Playoff championship rematch drew an overnight household rating of 15.3. That number is down compared to last year’s title game, when the Alabama-Clemson clash drew a 15.8 rating. The inaugural College Football Playoff final in 2015 earned a household rating of 18.5.
You would never know that from reading just sportswriters. This was the most thrilling national championship of eighteen that Fox's Stewart Mandel has covered. It was flat-out thrilling, that's for dang sure--when the winning touchdown was scored there was one second left on the clock.
Of course I did not watch it but the test is not a crabby hermit without a TV for thirteen years. It's those sociable and social media types with a TV room.
But...I follow sports, as even a day's gander here demonstrates. But...I don't like the college football playoff so much. I don't like the scholarly tackle football season extended to damn January 9th; I don't like the Super Bowl-like gap between the end of the playoffs and the national championship game. I don't like the wreck that is the bowl system. The major bowls used to be conference tie-ins and the four of them were always played on New Year's Day and THAT WAS THE END OF IT. There were a few minor bowls to reward minor accomplishments, championship teams of minor conferences, "up-and-coming teams," and all of the bowls were promotional events for their locales: The Rose (Southern California); the Orange (Miami); the Cotton (Dallas); the Sugar (New Orleans). Even the minor ones: Fiesta/Arizona; Peach/Atlanta; Sun/El Paso; Poulan Weedeater Independence Bowl/Poulan.
For some years now though the bowls have been promotions for their corporate sponsors. It's now the Rose Bowl Presented by...I forget who. And etc.
And there are so dang many of them. My God. I literally cannot keep track of them: I completely forgot that Pitt was playing in the Pinstripe Bowl in New York City. Didn't realize they had (and lost) until after the game was over. Didn't know until days later that Florida State had beaten Michigan in some other one.
The schedule is thrown off, the conference tie-ins have been loosened when not obliterated, and the sheer number--I shouldn't have been surprised but I wouldn't have been surprised had I just read the sportswriters until I saw that ratings article headline.
It was just a year ago that the Arrogance of Power scheduled the semi-final playoff games on New Year's Eve--confident that they could change the behavior of millions on one of the two nights in the year when American women must have sex to watching college football. That Arrogance was the explanation for last year's rating fiasco. But now there is this year's dip from last year (January 9th is not the other day. Her birthday is.)
So, I was surprised but I shouldn't have been.
