2008 BCS National Championship TV Ratings Down Sharply from Last Year
Tue, 2008-01-08 21:35 — Berger
Well the Nielsen ratings are out and last night's BCS National Championship game was down 17% when compared to last season's BCS National Championship game. In last night's yawner between LSU and Ohio State (USC would have beaten either team handily), the Tigers won their second BCS National Championship going away - 38-24 (I predicted a 10-point victory for the Tigers in yesterday's blog so I was a little off). Ohio State is now 0-9 against SEC teams in bowl games. I have a better chance of replacing David Stern as Commissioner of the NBA than the Buckeyes have of beating an SEC team in a bowl game.
Last night's game earned a 14.4/22 final Nielsen rating. The 2007 BCS National Championship game between Florida and Ohio State earned a 17.4/27 rating.
And Fox is yearning for ratings like the one the 2006 BCS National Championship game got when it was on ABC (who has exclusive rights to the Rose Bowl broadcast). That star-studded matchup which pitted USC (Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush) against Texas (Vince Young) earned a 21.7/35 rating. Last night's game was down 33% from the 2006 classic.
Maybe the suits with the BCS and NCAA will look at these declining TV ratings and finally see that its time for a playoff.........or at least a "plus-one" format.
I'm just happy bowl season is over and I can now focus 100% on the NFL Playoffs. Some of those bowl games were BRUTAL.
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A wise man!
The only thing I heard about this year was that the BCS is not set up to find the best college football team it is set up to make the most money. That’s fine if that is your goal but you would think that this year would prove that (like you said) a playoff system or a plus one would boost ratings. Hey more bowl games should bring in more..... um revenue? I guess I am writing this for two reasons. First is to ask you (since you seem to be one of the only rational people in the world about this) why do you think that they don’t see that this solves everyone’s problems and implement one of the two ideas. I may not be a genius but I do know that there is a better system out there to make money and find the best team at the same time. This is the one time that you can say everyone else does it, maybe we should to. There is a good reason every other sport in the world has a playoff system... it works. Sorry, enough of the rant, the second reason was to say thank you for having some common sense; you truly are a wise man.
BCS TV Ratings
How does a playoff increase TV ratings? College Football is still 120 teams mostly in small markets, except for teams like USC, UCLA, Ohio State, Michigan, Florida and Texas. It is not surprising that those teams are always involved when the ratings are the highest. The Bowls fill most of their spots with traditional teams that maximize fan interest. A playoff would have no control. That is why there isn't one .
Stick to pro football if television ratings excite you.
College football is about going to the games, especially the Bowls.
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