Two hours before the inaugural College Football Playoff championship game, Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger strode through an AT&T Stadium tunnel onto the field. He was flanked by NBA all-star Chris Paul and ESPN President John Skipper.
ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was standing 20 yards away, by one of the end zones. ABC News host David Muir was on ESPN’s sideline set delivering a report.
As the players from Oregon and Ohio State warmed up, the biggest names from ABC and ESPN — both talent and executives — walked the AT&T Stadium sidelines and soaked up the pregame anticipation.
ESPN’s approach to the first playoff championship game wasn’t to re-create the Super Bowl. But it did want to make it Super Bowl-like. The network emptied its full Disney bag of tricks on last week’s title game, from bringing “Good Morning
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SBJ Podcast:
Michael Smith and John Ourand assess the first College Football Playoff National Championship Game and what can be expected next year.
America” and ABC News to Dallas/Fort Worth, to Kimmel’s appearance on the sidelines and in one of ESPN’s two suites.
In the middle of it all, though, was ESPN’s Burke Magnus. At one point, the senior vice president of programming and acquisitions stepped back to take it all in and broke into a big smile.
“I was personally invested in the acquisition,” he said of the 12-year, $7.3 billion rights deal to get the CFP. “But it was up to the rest of the company in a lot of ways to deliver on the promise. To me, this is really a proud moment.”
Magnus was instrumental in cutting the deal that helped create the CFP. He recounted the endless hours of negotiations from nondescript conference rooms over the past few years.
“The promise we gave to these guys was that if we were successful, we’d deliver,” he said. “Just look around. Everybody’s here — all our shows, all our talent, all of the resources, all of the manpower from a production and operations perspective. It is just staggering.”
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Despite Super Bowl comparisons, the in-stadium experience had a distinctly collegiate feel.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
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There undoubtedly was a big-event feel in Dallas during the weekend leading up to the Jan. 12 championship game. Unlike the BCS championship from previous years, last week’s game featured multiple fan fests (both in downtown Dallas and outside the stadium), several corporate parties (sponsored by ESPN, IMG College and CFP, to name a few) and big-name concerts featuring the likes of Sting, Toby Keith, Aloe Blacc and Lenny Kravitz, each of whom played at separate events during the weekend. The approach to multiple fan fests and concerts was similar to the NCAA’s model for the Final Four in Dallas last year.
All of the buzz surrounding the first playoff championship in college football had several industry executives asking whether it felt more like the Super Bowl or the Final Four. Feedback was mixed. No one was willing to compare it to the Super Bowl on an event vs. event scale, but it did deliver many of the trappings and ancillary events that make the Super Bowl a national holiday.
“The exciting thing in year one was all the activity with the parties, the concerts, the fan fests, whereas in the past there wasn’t really that much to do,” said Michael Kelly, the CFP’s chief operating officer. “This year, there was a lot to do on the night before the biggest game of the year. … We never sought out to compare ourselves to the Super Bowl or the Final Four. Each of those events are great in their own right. I think we had a great first year to set a standard that this is something people will circle on the calendar and be a must-attend event.”
One of the primary differences: The CFP championship essentially played out over a three-day weekend; the Super Bowl is a weeklong spectacle, dominated by stars who transcend the sport. The media covering college’s biggest game were mostly traditional outlets, not the Comedy Centrals or MTVs or “Entertainment Tonight” shows that appear for the Super Bowl’s media day.
For Magnus, the event will start to grow as competing networks — CBS, Fox and others — descend on the activities around the game. This year, NBC’s “Today” show was in town. The network’s “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon featured the game in a skit.
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ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel and ESPN’s Jesse Palmer were among the talent at the game.
Photo by: MICHAEL SMITH / STAFF
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“That’s what separates the Super Bowl, because it cuts across all levels of fandom from the avid to the casual,” Magnus said.
Several executives believe the event has room to grow, albeit not to the level of the Super Bowl. But they do think the NFL’s marquee event can serve as a blueprint.
“We’re still in year one of a new format, so I think there’s a lot of room for growth,” said Optimum Sports Managing Director Jeremy Carey, who oversees several of the TV advertisers in the game. “We were not disappointed at all. There’s a lot going on in the sports world in a short period of time, and this was able to stand out.”
For many of the agencies and sponsors that focus on college sports, though, they’re satisfied with not being the Super Bowl. The feel of a collegiate event is what they bought.
“From the in-stadium experience, it definitely wasn’t a Super Bowl feel. It was much more collegiate,” said Larry Mann, executive vice president at rEvolution, the sports marketing agency of record for CFP partner Northwestern Mutual. “I love that college football environment inside the stadium, though.”
The Super Bowl is probably the only other event where ESPN brings all of its Disney resources to bear, so the network may not be trying to re-create the Super Bowl, but its approach is “Super Bowl-like,” said Rob Temple, the network’s senior vice president from the sports management group.
“From our standpoint, this is where you bring out all of your resources and connections,” Temple said. “From a preparation standpoint, it did feel like a Super Bowl.”
