The 1st 12-team College Football Playoff arrives after 100 years, a few billion dollars

The 1st 12-team College Football Playoff arrives after 100 years, a few billion dollars — and many detours

It required over a century, several billions of dollars, and the harsh reality that progress cannot be stopped indefinitely. And now, at last, college football has a real playoff tournament, just like the other sports.

Texas (hosted Clemson), Penn State (SMU), Notre Dame (Indiana), and Ohio State (Tennessee) will play four first-round games on campuses rich in football history as the first 12-team College Football Playoff gets underway on Friday and Saturday.

Saturdays are considered college territory by an agreement made decades ago as part of the NFL’s antitrust exemption, which forbids the league from broadcasting games on the most important day in college football. However, the prohibition only lasts until the middle of December, at which point the NFL steps in.

There are two games in the league that stand out. Saturday: Steelers vs. Ravens on Fox and Texans vs. Chiefs on NBC. Both SMU-Penn State and Clemson-Texas, which were sublicensed to TNT as part of ESPN’s initial agreement to broadcast the playoffs, are being counterprogrammed by the CFP.

What will happen? While last year’s championship game, when there were just four teams in the playoffs, got 25 million people, this season’s most watched college football game brought in 16.6 million.

The NFL averaged roughly 38.5 million viewers for its first-round playoff games last season, and a regular-season game between the Bills and Rams earlier this month got 24 million people.

Is it important? ESPN has a contract that pays $1.3 billion annually through 2031, but if its ratings decline, it may be forced to find more favorable TV windows and steer clear of the NFL, which has the highest ratings.

“It is critical that they receive a fair evaluation,” stated Dan Durbin, USC’s Institute of Sports, Media, and Society director. “Beating the NFL does not really count, in my opinion.”