Notre Dame Got Screwed

Notre Dame Got Screwed. There. I said it again.

Two close, flukey losses at the start of the season ended their playoff chances. And, guess what, the two teams they lost to are both in the playoffs.

For the rest of the season, the Irish were one of college football’s most dominant teams, winning 10 straight games by wide margins.

Should Notre Dame be in the playoffs ahead of Miami? Yes, if you balance who is best right now versus who won three months ago (don’t forget: that was a Miami home game). 

Should Notre Dame be in the playoffs ahead of Alabama? The Tide had three losses, counting getting blown out by Georgia on Saturday in a conference championship game. Should they get another shot at the Bulldogs in the playoffs? No. But Alabama is part of the SEC, one of the conferences ruling college football. They had support within the selection committee. Notre Dame, as an independent, did not. Some in the football establishment probably punished ND for not being in a conference. 

Should Notre Dame be in the playoffs ahead of Tulane and James Madison? I believe that schools in smaller conferences deserve a chance to prove their mettle, so I don’t begrudge them participating. But they are already big underdogs to Ole Miss and Oregon, respectively. And they would have been big underdogs to the Irish as well.

All that said, let’s get real.  No matter how many teams you let into the playoffs, a good squad is going to get left out, snubbed, screwed.

And Notre Dame fans knew after starting 0-2, their chances of making the playoffs were a long shot. The winning streak was a great ride. It woke up the echoes. They were in the championship game last season and there’s always next year.

Speaking of looking forward, Notre Dame’s decision not to participate in any of the other bowl games seem petty and whiny. The players voted, but the grownups should have known better. 

And there is a team from Indiana that is No.1 and could still in it all.

I KNOW WHAT YOU DID DURING THANKSGIVING

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. But your turkey probably didn’t taste as good as it did for the NFL and the networks that pay it billions to air its games.

The late game with the Cowboys beating Taylor Swift’s favorite team averaged 57.2 million viewers. That’s a new record for the regular season.

Those are the kinds of numbers CBS sees when it airs the AFC championship game in January.

The other Thanksgiving games did pretty good too with the Packers and Lions delivering 47.7 million viewers for Fox and NBC getting 28.4 million for the Bengals and Ravens.

Amazon’s Black Friday game where the Bears stomped the Eagles, drew 16.3 million viewers, up 21%

All together Turkey Day numbers were up 30% from last year–which set the previous ratings record. 

Now some of that increase has to do with the new way Nielsen is measuring viewing. It is using big data from millions of devices, not just its panel of about 100,000 viewers. Also it is counting viewership in bars and hotels and other out-of-home locations over the entire country. Last year it only captured out-of-home viewing in about 60% of the country.

You might remember that before the season started, the NFL was among those complaining about the new ratings system. NFL execs said their audience was being undercounted. They still want to work with Nielsen to make sure every fan is being counted–but maybe that’s not as urgent now

Look, a lot of the higher viewing numbers were the result of an interesting NFL season, strong matchups on Thursday and games that were close until the end.

Guess what? The networks think these numbers can go still higher. 

The NFL has signaled it wants to re-open its TV deals. That will happen and the network will pay whatever it takes. I don’t think the networks will want to fumble this golden goose.

COLLISION COURSE

Speaking of football, that NFL juggernaut is threatening to swamp some of the first-round games of the College Football Playoffs.

College football has been having a huge year. The Game, Ohio State vs Michigan, had the biggest audience of the year with 18.4 million viewers on Saturday–up 49% from last year.

But the college game faces the power of the NFL on Saturday, December 20. Football fans will get a banquet that day. There will be a NFL doublehelder and four college football playoff games.

Like last year, the games that ESPN sold to TNT Sports are the ones that will likely be the most impacted by competition from the pros. 

Before the 3:30pm playoff game on TNT ends, the Eagles and Commanders will kick off on Fox at 5.

And after the TNT 7:30 college game kicks off, the Bears and Packers will take the field at 8:20. (Can't wait for that rematch.)

Last year the NFL games averaged more than 15 million viewers, and the college playoff games drew about 7 million. Good luck to the college kids.