Yes, lots of fans hate it when sportswriters whine about stuff.
There’s just one thing about sportswriters whining, though — what if a given rant or line of complaints just happens to raise a worthy point?
It’s all about how rich the grapes are in your whine, or what cheese accompanies it. If the ingredients are good enough, the taste isn’t bitter. What might have seemed like aimless complaining becomes an enlightened critique of something that could have been better… but wasn’t.
So, it’s up to you to judge the following complaint. You might like it, or you might think it’s pointless. We opine, you decide.
The complaint: Why in blazes is the first College Football Playoff National Championship Game being played on Jan. 12, a Monday?
This schedule could be so much better than the one we have (much like this season’s New Year’s Six bowls being moved from Dec. 31 to Jan. 2, or the next few seasons steering clear of daytime playoff semifinals on Dec. 31 when Dec. 31 is a weekday).
Let’s start with television reasons and then move to the more truly substantive reason why this game shouldn’t be played on Jan. 12.
For television, it is confounding that college football insists on a Monday title game. Doesn’t it stand to reason that if a game is played on a worknight and a school night, it will be harder for families and kids to watch all the way through? We already have a Monday night national championship game at the Final Four, and what’s irritating about that game is that it starts at 9:23 Eastern time, ridiculously late for families. This football game starts at 8:30 Eastern, which is when the basketball game should start.
Sigh.
Yet, for all those problems, the Monday night slot itself isn’t even the central issue with respect to television, however. The main problem is that this game isn’t being played on a different but specific day.
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AT&T Stadium has hosted a Super Bowl (XLV in 2011). We don’t need the outrageous commercials or carnival atmosphere, but there’s certainly nothing wrong with making the College Football Playoff title game more of a main event. A more Super Bowl-ish time slot on the Saturday before the NFL’s conference title games would seem to be the perfect home for this event each January… but no, college football just isn’t smart about these kinds of things, and rarely has been.
What if college football waited six more days and played this game on Saturday, Jan. 17, the day before the NFL’s two conference championship games? This would be a lot more like the Super Bowl (a game which, by the way, should be played on Saturday as well so that workers can have the day after to decompress in various ways… separate discussion, yes, but one that had to be briefly inserted…). No, there wouldn’t be outrageous commercials, but the game would be much more of a main event. If the game was on a weekend, ESPN could run a long College GameDay episode and build up the theater in a way it can’t quite do on a weeknight. ESPN could slot the game at 7:25 Eastern (5 p.m. pregame show, 7 p.m. game coverage, then the 7:25 kickoff — you’re welcome), a more watchable slot for families.
Are you going to look at all the above details and tell me, with a straight face, that such a game wouldn’t do substantially better than a Monday night title game? The Saturday before the NFL conference title games has always been the perfect slot for a post-bowl championship game. College football — being shortsighted and dumb as it so often is — has seemingly missed a massive opportunity here. It might take an eight-team playoff to bring about this scheduling change.
That’s the TV side of all this. There’s a much bigger and better reason for college football to have waited until Saturday, Jan. 17, to play this game.
Check this out:
An NCAA rule limits Oregon’s practice hours this week but not Ohio State's (via @McMurphyESPN) http://t.co/1kkCfPvf4N pic.twitter.com/JbNouRgVyz
— SB Nation (@SBNation) January 7, 2015
It’s so obvious, right?
If the title game was played on Jan. 17 and not Jan. 12, Oregon and Ohio State would exist on an even playing field with respect to practice. Did anyone in a position of decision-making influence or authority fail to consider this?
Sweet mother of Earle Bruce, this just didn’t need to happen.
Heavens to Dan Fouts, why couldn’t this game have been set for Saturday, Jan. 17?
This game remains a great event and a wonderfully positive step forward for college football in its evolution. (The very word “evolution” has rarely been used in conjunction with college football.) It’s fantastic that we’ve arrived at a point where a title game is comprised of two teams that won their way into the game, as opposed to being politically placed in it. As we all know, Florida State-Alabama would have been the title game under the old BCS system. This is 10 trillion times better. It’s fabulous.
Yet, a Jan. 17 slot would have made this event so much better.
Is that a whine, or a legitimate complaint? The prosecution rests its case. You’re the jury — make up your mind.