CFP Title Game Draws 22 Million Viewers, Down 12% From Last Year

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Per Colin:

The College Football Playoff championship game was hit with a notable viewership dip in Year 1 of the expanded 12-team Playoff format.

Ohio State’s win over Notre Dame averaged 22.1 million viewers Monday on ESPN networks, down 12% from last year’s game between Michigan and Washington that drew 25.1 million. That number is up 28.5% compared to the 17.2 million who tuned in to TCU and Georgia’s title game in 2023.

Due to the expanded Playoff format, the title game was played after the second week of January for the first time in the CFP era. The latest date the championship game was played in the CFP era was Jan. 13 during the 2019–2020 season.

This year’s game also fell on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Next year’s game is scheduled for Jan. 19—also a Monday and MLK Day.

It likely also didn’t help nationwide viewership that the two teams in the title game are from the same region. Notre Dame’s campus in South Bend, Ind., is less than 300 miles away from Ohio State’s campus in Columbus, Ohio.

The viewership decline in the title game is in line with the trend from the semifinals. The two games averaged 19.2 million viewers, a 17% decline from the 23.2 million last year. However, last season’s games were played on New Year’s Day, a holiday commonly associated with college football.

frontofficesports.com

CFP Title Game Draws 22M Viewers, Down 12% From Last Year

Next year’s national championship game is scheduled for Monday, Jan. 19.
frontofficesports.com frontofficesports.com

Go Gophers!!
 

Terrible night to have it.

I am not anti Monday night championship games, but Monday night after two straight nights of NFL playoffs is too late.

They need to figure out how to get the Final 4 on New Years day and have the championship game 1 week later.
 



MNfootballfan said:
Terrible night to have it.

I am not anti Monday night championship games, but Monday night after two straight nights of NFL playoffs is too late.

They need to figure out how to get the Final 4 on New Years day and have the championship game 1 week later.
Click to expand...
Correct

Pretty easy.

Move season to start one week earlier.
Thanksgiving week is now conference title week
Conference title week is now army navy week


This year
Dec 12-14 round of 12
Dec 19-22 round of 8
Jan 1 two semifinals and other bowls
Saturday Jan 11. This is wild card weekend.
Tell the nfl you’re playing the game and don’t care.

NFL game might even beat you in ratings but it doesn’t matter. Because college cuts into theirs and they’ll eventually give up the window to make the money decision to play it as a standalone game later.


Wildcard Saturday would eventually become
Noon - NfL
330 - NFL
730 - college national title
 





gophernut1 said:
I am shocked they don't put the game on "ABC" vs. keeping it on "ESPN." I would imagine that impact viewership numbers as well.
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I think it's how they justify their subscription rates.
 



gophernut1 said:
I am shocked they don't put the game on "ABC" vs. keeping it on "ESPN." I would imagine that impact viewership numbers as well.
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Yeah I don’t understand how tOSU vs Notre Dame didn’t get a big channel. Even casual folks might pick it up.
 

Ope3 said:
I think it's how they justify their subscription rates.
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Yep, services like YouTube TV drastically "overpay" for live sports. What I mean by that is that they are often loss-leaders for these services (they don't bring in as much marketing revenue as the amount they pay), but it's the 1 reason why a lot of people have Youtube TV. IT's the same thing as BTN. BTN is actually more valuable to those services than it is if it just started its own service and put every game on there.
 


Thursday night might be optimal. The only regular-season NFL games that beat the CFP Championship in the ratings in 2024 were Thursday games not on Amazon.

Thursday also has the advantage of a mid-week media build-up. Bloggers, talk radio, and ESPN would all give the CFP much more attention when not swamped by immediate reactions to multiple NFL playoff games.

It's worth mentioning that the CFP Championship is the most-watched non-NFL program on TV, ahead of the presidential debates, Olympics, Oscars, Grammys, a Yankees-Dodgers World Series, and the viral Caitlin Clark game.
 



BeenHazy said:
Thursday night might be optimal. The only regular-season NFL games that beat the CFP Championship in the ratings in 2024 were Thursday games not on Amazon.

Thursday also has the advantage of a mid-week media build-up. Bloggers, talk radio, and ESPN would all give the CFP much more attention when not swamped by immediate reactions to multiple NFL playoff games.

It's worth mentioning that the CFP Championship is the most-watched non-NFL program on TV, ahead of the presidential debates, Olympics, Oscars, Grammys, a Yankees-Dodgers World Series, and the viral Caitlin Clark game.
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Yet another Thursday would really suck for those wishing to follow their team to wherever the CFP might be taking place.

It's all about the TV revenue though.

Good point, that while viewership was down, it's still a big number. I think having 2 teams from the same geographic region/neighboring states had an impact.
 

MNfootballfan said:
Terrible night to have it.

I am not anti Monday night championship games, but Monday night after two straight nights of NFL playoffs is too late.

They need to figure out how to get the Final 4 on New Years day and have the championship game 1 week later.
Click to expand...
This would only happen if the Rose Bowl was always a semifinal game and it never landed on a Sunday.
 


Ope3 said:
Yet another Thursday would really suck for those wishing to follow their team to wherever the CFP might be taking place.

It's all about the TV revenue though.

Good point, that while viewership was down, it's still a big number. I think having 2 teams from the same geographic region/neighboring states had an impact.
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You also have to consider though the viewership of one game was down, the overall viewership of the playoff was way up.

In 2022 the new years 6 + national title game got about 92 million viewers (10 teams)

This year about 170 million turned into the playoffs (12 teams)

Not an apples to apples comparison due to number of teams but that’s a huge number. And that’s with zero games on network TV and with two games on turner, who doesn’t have any other games all year.
 

Also, the game may have dictated a lower viewership. Let's not forget is was 27-7 two minutes into the second half. There was likely a tune-out factor. If the game was 27-27 at that point, the numbers skyrocket.

It eventually got closer, but by that time the chance to get a huge number was gone.
 



I still don't understand why fans sit around discussing billionaire media conglomerate advertising metrics
 

Some guy said:
You also have to consider though the viewership of one game was down, the overall viewership of the playoff was way up.

In 2022 the new years 6 + national title game got about 92 million viewers (10 teams)

This year about 170 million turned into the playoffs (12 teams)

Not an apples to apples comparison due to number of teams but that’s a huge number. And that’s with zero games on network TV and with two games on turner, who doesn’t have any other games all year.
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Forgive my ignorance on the subject, when they report the # of viewers, is it how many tuned in at any point in time, at a specific point in time, an average of some sort?
 



It would be interesting to see ratings by state this year compared to last year too. It seems to me SEC fans don't care much about college football outside of the SEC.

Also this will never happen because of logistics and the bowls but having the championship on NY Day would be the best, preferably at the Rose Bowl every year.
 


Gophers1992 said:
Forgive my ignorance on the subject, when they report the # of viewers, is it how many tuned in at any point in time, at a specific point in time, an average of some sort?
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Typically they report both.
The numbers I took were the averages

I assume the sites I found them on were accurately reporting but they were just the first couple of Google results
 

GophersInIowa said:
It would be interesting to see ratings by state this year compared to last year too. It seems to me SEC fans don't care much about college football outside of the SEC.

Also this will never happen because of logistics and the bowls but having the championship on NY Day would be the best, preferably at the Rose Bowl every year.
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The way to end it on New Year’s Day would be to do the following:
16 team brackets
Start season a week earlier
Do bids for all conference champs and a formula for the rest.
Formula rank.

Last game ends on the week before thanksgiving, formula prints the bracket.
No conference championships.
Conferences decide how to award their champ without a championship game. Probably by highest ranked team that tied for title unless a clear head to head tiebreaker winner.

First round thanksgiving weekend.
Give thanksgiving to nfl. 8-9 game played on Black Friday along with 1-16 game.
Other 6 games played thanksgiving Saturday.

Second round first weekend in December (8)
1 vs 8/9 game Friday
3 games Saturday (currently this is army navy weekend)

Third round second weekend in December (4)
This was first round weekend this year
 
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GophersInIowa said:
It would be interesting to see ratings by state this year compared to last year too. It seems to me SEC fans don't care much about college football outside of the SEC.

Also this will never happen because of logistics and the bowls but having the championship on NY Day would be the best, preferably at the Rose Bowl every year.
Click to expand...
They will probably never do it because the Rose Bowl wants it's NYD game but they could/should have the semis and Championship there every year.
 

Some guy said:
The way to end it on New Year’s Day would be to do the following:
16 team brackets
Start season a week earlier
Do bids for all conference champs and a formula for the rest.
Formula rank.

Last game ends on the week before thanksgiving, formula prints the bracket.
No conference championships.
Conferences decide how to award their champ without a championship game. Probably by highest ranked team that tied for title unless a clear head to head tiebreaker winner.

First round thanksgiving weekend.
Give thanksgiving to nfl. 8-9 game played on Black Friday along with 1-16 game.
Other 6 games played thanksgiving Saturday.

Second round first weekend in December (8)
1 vs 8/9 game Friday
3 games Saturday (currently this is army navy weekend)

Third round second weekend in December (4)
This was first round weekend this year
Click to expand...
Would you then allow teams that lose in the playoffs to play in a bowl game then?
 

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