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With more and more games being postponed because of rising Covid-19 numbers inside college football programs, conferences are looking at all scenarios to get all of their games in. While it may not matter if a 2-6 team needs to make-up a game against a 3-5 team, it matters to the league and its TV partner to get as many, or all, of their scheduled games played for.......money.
But how can you do it? Most conference title games are scheduled for December 19th.Most leagues have already planned to play additional conference games that day to make-up lost games earlier in the season.
The College Football Playoff committee is set to pick its four teams for their made-for-TV invitational on Sunday December 20th. We are scheduled to play the two national semifinal games on January 1st and a national championship game is set for Monday January 11th in Miami.
So how can we move things around and use December 19th and maybe even December 26th for regular season games?
Here's an idea:
--Move conference titles games to December 31st and January 1st. Play the 10 league championships over these two days and make New Year's a true college football bonanza. This gives all leagues a chance to not just play games that impact the division or league races but also allows everyone in your conference to get in as many games as possible for the fans you are allowing to come into stadiums and to fill your TV obligation of delivering content.
--The playoff committee and ESPN(its TV partner) then can own Saturday morning January 2nd with their typical four hour show explaining who is in and not.
--The current semifinal sites are New Orleans and Pasadena. I know it's the Rose Bowl, but are we even allowing fans to attend that game? If the answer is no, then create your playoff bubble in New Orleans and Atlanta and have your playoff teams head to those cities on January 4th.
--Teams will practice in those cities and isolate for a week.
--You can't compete with the NFL Playoffs so you schedule the two semifinals on Monday January 11th and Tuesday January 12th.
--Move your title game from January 11th two weeks to January 25th.
There you go. Simple. Right?
Not exactly. The challenge in moving the season forward a couple of weeks if plentiful. ESPN wants those semifinals on January 1st and then there's more than two dozen bowl games ESPN owns. And before you roll your eyes about bowl games, it's content that draws eyes and even some of the lower bowls easily outdraw most programming that network would run without those bowls.
Even locally, Florida Citrus Sports is planning for their two bowl games and Cure Bowl is planning for their day as well.
Can those bowls adjust and move? Not that simple. Again, the NFL owns those January Saturdays. But again, this is 2020 and about to become 2021 and our normal is not yet back.
There are challenges in attempting to move the college football season forward a week or two, but in the end, this is all about the same thing it is always about. MONEY. And that means,all parties will do whatever it takes to keep as much of the money as they can...
Notes: Miami needs to be careful at Virginia Tech. The Hokies lost to Liberty last week but should play the Canes tough at home tomorrow...I do not expect Florida to be flat when Arkansas comes to town. The Gators know what's at stake. If Florida wins out, and that includes beating Alabama in the conference title, they are in the playoffs...I don't care who the Magic draft next week. Whoever they draft, we will be told "he's athletic with a great wingspan and can play multiple positions"...Orlando City has as good of a chance as anyone of winning the MLS Cup. The Lions can score and have the best head coach in the league and sadly are missing out on having a packed stadium to cheer on a team that has earned its fan base being back...Tiger Woods can still play golf when his back feels fine...My fantasy football has a must win game this week and I am a 22-point underdog. I know, you don't care.
Final thought: Ants rest about 8 minutes for every 12 hours of work