CFP Exec Dir Bill Hancock said there were a number of reasons that factored into the viewership plummeting for the two semifinals on New Year's Eve compared to last season, including the date, the lopsided scores and possibly some "fade from the excitement of the first season." Appearing on Fox Sports' podcast "The Audible," Hancock said, "It’s not clear how much any one of those factors contributed. We know that regardless of when a game is played, nothing attracts viewers more than a close, competitive game and we had none of those.” He characterized the viewership decline for all the New Year's Six games as “modest and frankly, not surprising.” Hancock: “We just need to make sure that we understand the reason for the decline, and now is too soon to speculate about that.” Hancock several times made the point that "one year just does not make a trend." Speculation has turned to the CFP talking to ESPN about moving the semifinals off of New Year's Eve for the '16 season. Hancock noted there are "many more factors that go into how we operate that are more significant than TV ratings." He said ratings are a "factor, and it’s something that we are going to have to look at.” However, noting there are 10 more years on the current broadcast contract, he added, "We have not talked at all about making any changes (about the schedule). ... Certainly for the next couple of years, things are absolutely locked into place.” Hancock: “This is not a knee-jerk enterprise that we are in and we will not be making a knee-jerk decision."
EVERY ROSE HAS ITS THORN: The Rose and Sugar Bowls are contractually locked into a New Year's Day slot, and Hancock said all parties "recognize how important that Rose Bowl window is to college football, and we recognized it when we were putting the playoff together.” He acknowledged ratings for the Rose Bowl were down "a little bit" from '15, but he attributed that to the game not hosting a CFP semifinal and Stanford's 45-16 win over Iowa. Hancock: "They were right in target with what they’ve been doing in the past when they’ve been on ESPN.” Podcast co-host Stewart Mandel interjected, saying, “I’ve got to stop you there. It was the lowest Rose Bowl rating on record.” Hancock responded, “I would say, modest (decline). That’s a nice, objective word for it, but they did not have a competitive game. That is such a strong factor in all of this” ("The Audible," FOXSPORTS.com, 1/4).
LOOKING ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: ESPN's J.A. Adande said the "big story of the bowl season" is low CFP ratings, but he noted "circumstances might change in the future." Adande: "This year, New Year's Eve falls on the weekend, so that’ll help. Maybe get some more competitive games. But they can't think this long-term is a solution for college football.” Dallas Morning News columnist Tim Cowlishaw: “Competitive games obviously would have helped marginally, but not as much as you would think. ... You just can't tell people all these bowl games are important and these playoff games are important too and expect people to watch everything.” N.Y. Daily News’ Frank Isola said the “timing of it was awful,” as the games should have been played on Saturday, when “everyone is focused” on football (“Around The Horn,” ESPN, 1/4).
