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A Primetime Reason Why ESPN Isn’t Interested in a Playoff

Posted by srr50 on December 31st, 2008 under Uncategorized

People bitch and moan about the plethora of bowl games and the lack of enough decent teams to fill them — but still tune in to watch.

So far during the prelims of the 2008-09 Bowl Season, ESPN has seen a sharp spike in ratings. Excluding the two new bowls that started this year (EagleBank–St. Petersburg), the eight bowl games that were on ESPN and ESPN2 through Dec. 27th averaged over a million more viewers than in 2007.

ESPN pulled down an average of 4.6 million viewers for their Las Vegas/New Orleans/Poinsettia/Hawaii/Meinke Car Care/Champs/Emerald Bowl extraveganza.

That is a 44% increase over the average of 3.2 million viewers for that string of bowl games in 2007.

Obviously matchups have an effect. For instance the Hawaii Bowl saw their tv viewership more than double from 2007 — thanks to Notre Dame. More than 4.4 million tuned in to watch the Irish bitch slap Hawaii 49-21. That was up 119% from the 2007 number of viewers who watched East Carolina vs. Boise State.

The Champs Sports Bowl between Florida State and Wisconson is easily the most-watched bowl so far with over 7 million people tuning in to watch the Seminoles run rings around another Big 10 team. That number was up over 50% from those who watched Boston College vs. Michigan State last year.

The Poinsettia Bowl benefited from it’s Top 15 match as well. TCU’s win over Boise State drew a 3.2 rating with over 5.1 million viewers, which was an increase of 115% over the numbers pulled in by the 2007 game between Utah and Navy.

ESPN owns outright six of the minor bowls, and they will take over the BCS in a couple of years. They like the system right now with its cheap, live programming. When the BCS championship game moves to ESPN, college football will be the first of the major sports to have its championship game on cable rather than broadcast TV. 

The consensus is that almost 90% of U.S. Households pay for cable or satellite service. That means roughly 14 million households have TV sets with antennas. How the BCS championship series does then will be watched carefully by an awful lot of network and sports executives. The last four World Series are the four lowest rated ever, with the 2008 Phillies-Rays series drawing a record low 8.4 rating. The NBA finals get about the same rating now. ABC already has the NBA finals, so a move to ESPN wouldn’t be much of a shock. Major League Baseball already has a lot of their postseason games on cable.

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13 Responses

  1. Bob in Houston said:

    December 31st, 2008 at 6:01 pm

    I understand what you are saying, but this is kind of like BCS advocates saying, “Look at all the talk and attention the BCS generates.” That’s because it’s the way the two playoff teams are selected.

    I would argue that the number of viewers would be multiplied by a playoff, and the lesser bowls would remain in place. They would eat cake and also have cake.

  2. Texoz said:

    December 31st, 2008 at 7:21 pm

    Gotta wonder if fewer people are traveling, thus more are watching from home.

  3. Horn in Tyler said:

    December 31st, 2008 at 9:12 pm

    It is idiotic that there was not a single football game on Christmas Day, and only the unwatchable Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Eve. If you want ratings, you put the first round of the playoffs on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Just like the crappy Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving, people will watch, and a new tradition will arise. People will want to see how their college football playoff brackets shake out.

    Imagine the advertising dollars. How is ESPN not drooling about that?

    Another thing: if the bowl games MATTER, people may actually travel to see them. How many bowl games have you seen with half-empty stadiums this year? It isn’t just this year’s economy–it’s been that way for years past.

  4. Parlin Hall said:

    January 1st, 2009 at 5:39 am

    The Statesman just reported that Mack Brown was named Bobby Dodd national coach of the year:

    http://www.statesman.com/sports/content/sports/stories/longhorns/01/01/0101coach.html

    Nice honor for him.

  5. 98 said:

    January 1st, 2009 at 7:37 am

    nice article on espn about our future recruits at the ua game.

    http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/recruiting/football/news/story?id=3803124

  6. Texasholdem said:

    January 1st, 2009 at 11:04 am

    Can someone explain to me why having a playoff in college football would some how preclude also having bowl games? How is the Hawaii Bowl effected by an eight team playoff?

  7. Bob in Houston said:

    January 1st, 2009 at 12:59 pm

    It wouldn’t. But as srr notes, it wouldn’t keep costs down.

  8. Phenomenal Smith said:

    January 1st, 2009 at 3:42 pm

    I don’t bitch and moan about the bowls and a lack of playoffs. In fact, the only thing I bitch and moan about is that these games are all around the holidays and I’m expected to do stuff with friends and family that doesn’t involve sitting in front of the television and watching the Florida Atlantic/Central Michigan game.

  9. Gene Claude said:

    January 1st, 2009 at 5:04 pm

    I love bowls, I dislike playoffs, yet I bitch anyway, because that’s just what I do.

  10. Eric said:

    January 2nd, 2009 at 8:19 am

    “It is idiotic that there was not a single football game on Christmas Day,”

    I miss the blue gray game. At least it was something to distract me from the horde of family members around me.

  11. LonghornLawyer said:

    January 2nd, 2009 at 9:13 am

    I have no data to suppor this hypothesis, but I suspect part of the increase in ratings is due to the economy: people are staying home and watching whatever is on television rather than going out as in years past.

  12. anonymous said:

    January 2nd, 2009 at 10:34 am

    I’m not sure how a playoff would hurt the lesser bowls’ ratings. These games are already irrelevant to the national championship, and you could still have them if you had a small or even medium sized playoff.

  13. DougNTexas said:

    January 2nd, 2009 at 5:18 pm

    One reason people watch the sorry ass bowls is the fact that football season will be 9 months away in a handfull of days.

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