Crappy Championship Game Ratings Help UConn

[Chin Diesel]

The championship game was way down in ratings too.

The analysts are already all over the probability that matching up two teams from the South killed national ratings. The theory is that the south will watch college football in high numbers regardless. But the rest of the country was tuned out. Even having the bluest of blue bloods in Alabama and a well-known opponent in Clemson didn't bring in casual viewers.

The Duke/Wisconsin FF championship game had higher viewership. Wisconsin brought in much of the Midwest.

How does this help UConn?

It's another data point using current viewership trends that shows supersaturation isn't the path forward for league networks. You need to expand and be broad in markets.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The championship game was way down in ratings too.

The analysts are already all over the probability that matching up two teams from the South killed national ratings. The theory is that the south will watch college football in high numbers regardless. But the rest of the country was tuned out. Even having the bluest of blue bloods in Alabama and a well-known opponent in Clemson didn't bring in casual viewers.

The Duke/Wisconsin FF championship game had higher viewership. Wisconsin brought in much of the Midwest.

How does this help UConn?

It's another data point using current viewership trends that shows supersaturation isn't the path forward for league networks. You need to expand and be broad in markets.

One of your better posts. Unfortunately, while completely rational, I don't know that anything can help us but a vote going our way on Friday.

Most people who thought this through thought that telling fans of secondary school that they don't matter was going to drive off casual fans. Sure enough, that is exactly what happened. I think that college football has permanently damaged its product, although the damage is showing up quicker than I expected.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Here's the top markets. Notice any similarities? Notice what areas are "underrepresented"?

http://www.si.com/college-football/2016/01/12/college-football-national-title-game-espn-megacast

What the network did not get was viewership numbers even close to those from last year. The national title game drew a 25.7 million viewers on ESPN, down 23% from the 2015 championship. (That game—Ohio State’s 42–20 win over Oregon—drew 33.8 million viewers.) If you factor in ESPN's complete Megacast coverage, the viewership was 26.182 million. Those are disappointing numbers given the quality of the game. The ’16 title game did not have nearly the buzz of last year’s contest, perhaps a byproduct of how badly the College Football Playoff executives bungled New Year’s Eve.


For an interesting comparison: The Duke-Wisconsin men’s basketball national title game last April drew 28.3 million viewers on CBS on a Monday night. Rarely does college basketball trump college football in this kind of head-to-head comparison.

Birmingham was the No. 1 local market for the game, earning a 59.2 overnight, the market’s third best overnight for a postseason college football game on ESPN. The top 10 metered markets for the game were Birmingham (59.2), Greenville, S.C. (39.0), Atlanta (30.1), Nashville (29.1), Knoxville, Tenn. (28.4), New Orleans (25.6), Jacksonville (24.8), Columbus, Ohio, (23.0), Charlotte (22.8) and West Palm Beach, Fla. (20.3).

 

[amory]

Good. The networks and conferences have made their bed, now they can lay in it.

They've literally made it so that the majority of schools aren't allowed to seriously compete anymore, and figured that the viewership would stay the same. Personally I've never watched a college football playoff game and I never will.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Good. The networks and conferences have made their bed, now they can lay in it.

They've literally made it so that the majority of schools aren't allowed to seriously compete anymore, and figured that the viewership would stay the same. Personally I've never watched a college football playoff game and I never will.

I will start watching college football playoff games when there's a team participating who plays in the same league as UConn.

 

[Ldandy]

I think the problem is two fold. The first was two southern schools from low population states playing in the final. Although one is the bluest of blue bloods and the other is a great program, are non college football fans in Wyoming, Arizona, or Maine going to care enough to tune in? The second is the move of all of these games to ESPN. If this were primetime on one of the 4 major networks it would draw a larger audience.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The best thing that could happen to UConn at this point is that college football popularity crashes, and crashes hard.

 

[Dooley]

Yup. Expanding footprints makes sense to any logical thinker. Case in point: on paper, which game do you think would create a better rating (aka most interest) heading into bowl season:

UConn vs Marshall at 11am
Auburn vs Memphis at 3pm

If you sided with the second, don't worry- so would I.

Both games delivered the same rating. Roughly 2.4M TVs for each.

Markets matter.

 

[Jimdish255]

Shrinking the competitive pie while bungling the semifinal games and stretching out the season was always going to be a fail. In their greed the myopic kings of CFB have succeeded in strengthening their hold around the neck of the sport.

 

[B1GOSU]

That's what happens when Ohio State isn't playing!

 

[Rico444]

Yup. Expanding footprints makes sense to any logical thinker. Case in point: on paper, which game do you think would create a better rating (aka most interest) heading into bowl season:

UConn vs Marshall at 11am
Auburn vs Memphis at 3pm

If you sided with the second, don't worry- so would I.

Both games delivered the same rating. Roughly 2.4M TVs for each.

Markets matter.

You have to take into account that UConn's game was on a Saturday when most people are home from work while the other one was on a Wednesday afternoon when millions of people were at their jobs. Not really a fair comparison.

 

[Dooley]

You have to take into account that UConn's game was on a Saturday when most people are home from work while the other one was on a Wednesday afternoon when millions of people were at their jobs. Not really a fair comparison.

Okay, how's this one:

UConn vs OU - 2010 Fiesta (a game that nobody in the country thought UConn deserved to play in);

Houston vs FSU - 2015 NY6 (1 loss UH and 2 year removed national champ)

One game drew over 10M TVs. The other drew almost half that. Take a stab which is which.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

I've always had a problem with the NCAAF championship game being on a Monday night. Same with the men's bball game too (usually only watching that when we're in it). Still don't understand why they don't push it to a weekend.

 

[kemba]

I've always had a problem with the NCAAF championship game being on a Monday night. Same with the men's bball game too (usually only watching that when we're in it). Still don't understand why they don't push it to a weekend.

Agreed, but this weekend or next weekend would compete with the NFL playoffs, and I guess logistically it would be difficult to do it sooner with the playoffs and the New Years bowls.

 

[bobbyinaz]

Okay, how's this one:

UConn vs OU - 2010 Fiesta (a game that nobody in the country thought UConn deserved to play in);

Houston vs FSU - 2015 NY6 (1 loss UH and 2 year removed national champ)

One game drew over 10M TVs. The other drew almost half that. Take a stab which is which.

Um......

The 2011 Fiesta Bowl which had UConn vs OU was on TV on New Years night against no other competition

The Houston vs FSU game was played on New Years Eve day and in many places in the country started before noon.

Not exactly a solid comparison.

 

[Dooley]

Um.

The 2011 Fiesta Bowl which had UConn vs OU was on TV on New Years night against no other competition

The Houston vs FSU game was played on New Years Eve day and in many places in the country started before noon.

Not exactly a solid comparison.

Oh please. Our game was a "blowout" by many accounts and still doubled UH/FSU. Not to mention the swarms of negative buzz UConn received leading into the game. There was nothing but excitement for UH/FSU.

Our Fiesta outdrew every bowl game this year but 3: Rose, Orange and Cotton...two of them were Playoff games.

Markets matter.

 

[Husky25]

Even comparing the MBB National Championship game vs the CFP final is a skewed comparison. For starters, it is not unusual for college basketball to be played on Monday Night. Secondly, it is the culmination of 3 weeks of engaging storylines if not merely exciting meaningful basketball. $$hundreds of millions in gambling. Finally what was the Final4 and championship game up against?

College football is not normally a Monday Night occurrence. I think the CFP is too short and the casual fan cannot get up to speed on any intriguing storyline. Finally, the semi-final games were played while the East Coast Megaopolis was drowning themselves in sparkling white wine and Jalapeno poppers. What a stupid idea to put the games on New Years Eve, when your prime demographic is getting ready to go to a party and more interested in libation than what, if anything, is on the TV.

They've already alluded to the semis being on NYE again this year. I think that is an awful idea. The CFP should be on the following Monday afternoon that most will have off for the holiday. New Years Day falls on a Sunday. College football doesn't dare go head to head with pro football.

 

[whaler11]

Why does West Palm Beach always get ridiculous ratings for college sports?

 

[gioff23]

I agree that the fact that the game involved 2 southern schools did not help. And I am not a fan of having to stay up until after midnight on a Monday to watch the game - I have a demanding job.

But the system is creating unexpected (to me) challenges, including a lack of excitement building up to the game (a la March Madness) combined with a feeling of the system being limited to the 1%. These playoff games and bowls are creating challenges for fans - the bowls matter more to a team like UConn on the way up then it does to a perennial power who missed out on the playoff, to the point that even those fans included in the P5 are seemingly less interested. There's a reason a top 10 match up involving FSU can't outdraw the only bowl that can't find a corporate sponsor. Even FL fans are underwhelmed. You can't create a rigged system where entrance is extremely limited and continue to play bowl games that are utterly meaningless. Either go back to the bowl system and create fictional champions, or recreate the bowl system in to a true playoff system, with say 32 teams marching toward the championship (mindful that you are ever increasing the risk of injury to kids who would be playing nearly 20 games while supposedly attending college.

 

[methodology]

Oh please. Our game was a "blowout" by many accounts and still doubled UH/FSU. Not to mention the swarms of negative buzz UConn received leading into the game. There was nothing but excitement for UH/FSU.

Our Fiesta outdrew every bowl game this year but 3: Rose, Orange and Cotton...two of them were Playoff games.

Markets matter.

While I agree markets matter your comparison is not fair.

Every bar in America had the uconn/ou game on cause it was prime time and only game playing.

Half the bars in America weren't even open to show the Houston/fsu game and there were competing events.

New years eve night games will always have higher than normal ratings for that exact reason. No competition and every bar and majority of houses will have it in the tube just to have a sporting event on whether it's being watched or not

 

[CL82]

While I agree markets matter your comparison is not fair.

Every bar in America had the uconn/ou game on cause it was prime time and only game playing.

Half the bars in America weren't even open to show the Houston/fsu game and there were competing events.

New years eve night games will always have higher than normal ratings for that exact reason. No competition and every bar and majority of houses will have it in the tube just to have a sporting event on whether it's being watched or not

...and ratings are based on bar viewers? Do they poll how many people were in the bar as well?

 

[methodology]

...and ratings are based on bar viewers? Do they poll how many people were in the bar as well?

Just like they count people in houses. Come on now.

Well now I'm going to just have to show the ratings for the 2010 Fiesta bowl that had Boise vs TCU.... 8.6 rating compared to a 6.7 for UConn/OU.

The 2010 Fiesta bowl was played on Monday after new years January 4th. A bowl game with no bearing on national champion and had 2 schools with not from huge markets

 

[mavblues]

While I agree markets matter your comparison is not fair.

Every bar in America had the uconn/ou game on cause it was prime time and only game playing.

Half the bars in America weren't even open to show the Houston/fsu game and there were competing events.

New years eve night games will always have higher than normal ratings for that exact reason. No competition and every bar and majority of houses will have it in the tube just to have a sporting event on whether it's being watched or not

What do bar viewers have to do with ratings?

 

[CL82]

Just like they count people in houses. Come on now.

Actually, no they don't. Nielsen is household based. So your point that the ratings were somehow bolstered by people watching in bars (see below) is wrong.

While I agree markets matter your comparison is not fair.

Every bar in America had the uconn/ou game on cause it was prime time and only game playing.

Half the bars in America weren't even open to show the Houston/fsu game and there were competing events.

New years eve night games will always have higher than normal ratings for that exact reason. No competition and every bar and majority of houses will have it in the tube just to have a sporting event on whether it's being watched or not

 

[upstater]

Here's the top markets. Notice any similarities? Notice what areas are "underrepresented"?

http://www.si.com/college-football/2016/01/12/college-football-national-title-game-espn-megacast

What the network did not get was viewership numbers even close to those from last year. The national title game drew a 25.7 million viewers on ESPN, down 23% from the 2015 championship. (That game—Ohio State’s 42–20 win over Oregon—drew 33.8 million viewers.) If you factor in ESPN's complete Megacast coverage, the viewership was 26.182 million. Those are disappointing numbers given the quality of the game. The ’16 title game did not have nearly the buzz of last year’s contest, perhaps a byproduct of how badly the College Football Playoff executives bungled New Year’s Eve.


For an interesting comparison: The Duke-Wisconsin men’s basketball national title game last April drew 28.3 million viewers on CBS on a Monday night. Rarely does college basketball trump college football in this kind of head-to-head comparison.

Birmingham was the No. 1 local market for the game, earning a 59.2 overnight, the market’s third best overnight for a postseason college football game on ESPN. The top 10 metered markets for the game were Birmingham (59.2), Greenville, S.C. (39.0), Atlanta (30.1), Nashville (29.1), Knoxville, Tenn. (28.4), New Orleans (25.6), Jacksonville (24.8), Columbus, Ohio, (23.0), Charlotte (22.8) and West Palm Beach, Fla. (20.3).

Those numbers tell me that the center of the college football universe is Atlanta and parts of Tennessee. You can draw a 250 mile triangle from Atlanta to Nashville then over to Knoxville, or heck, Birmingham is even closer to Atlanta. Draw a square. SW corner Birmingham-Tuscaloosa. NW Nashville. NE Knoxville. SE Atlanta. And there you have more viewers per square foot than anywhere else.