Trojans Wire joined the Last Word On Sports media podcast to discuss a wide range of topics, several in the college football sphere. One of the more interesting discussions on this podcast was a simple but significant question: Will the advent of the 12-team College Football Playoff boost or hurt television ratings for late regular-season games at the end of November and the start of December?
This is a very interesting discussion with a lot of angles.
Let’s start with the point, raised by Ken Fang of Awful Announcing, that the conference championship games could be in for a rough ride in terms of television viewership. If Alabama and Georgia are playing in the SEC Championship Game, and both teams are 11-1 or one team is 12-0 and the other is 11-1, viewership could plummet. Both teams would be safely in the 12-team playoff field. Conference title games could become vulnerable as TV properties. That’s an excellent point.
However, there is also this point to consider: While Georgia and Alabama figure to be safely in the playoff, the SEC’s third- and fourth-place teams will be on the bubble for a playoff berth. The third-place team in the Big Ten will probably be on the bubble. The second-place teams in the Big 12 or ACC or Pac-12 (or a combination thereof) will be on the bubble.
Those teams — with 10-1 records — will play very significant games in Game 12 of the regular season at the end of November. Teams with 10-2 records playing in early December will be playing for their playoff fates. In many ways, the 12-team playoff could improve, not reduce, TV ratings, but the conference title games are likely to suffer to an extent.
It’s a very interesting conversation. You’ll want to listen to the Last Word On Sports media podcast, where that and a lot of other topics were discussed.
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