The College Football Playoff has been a good thing for the sport. Despite obvious controversies, it’s made more games important, and it’s gotten the sport closer than it’s ever been before to having one unimpeachable champ at the end of a sprawling season.
Why the Playoff is several days before New Year’s Day this season
At least it’s not on New Year’s Eve night, like it was originally supposed to be.
John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
The College Football Playoff has not been a good thing for many New Year’s Eve plans.
When the Playoff came into effect for the 2014 season, the plan was that it would frequently have semifinal games on New Year’s Eve — a day before the big bowls have historically been played, and right smack in the middle of when you’d probably rather be at a party.
The late game conflicted with a lot of people’s work when New Year’s Eve was a weekday, and another conflicted with prime boozing hours for much of the country.
The Playoff wanted to make college football own New Year’s Eve like the sport already owns New Year’s Day, but lots of people were just annoyed. (The Playoff will only be a NYD thing when the Rose and Sugar, traditional January 1 bowls, host.)
This year, the Playoff semifinals are on December 29. Whew. Why?
This was not the initial plan. The Playoff was supposed to be on New Year’s Eve this year. But after 2015’s ratings and games were terrible and ESPN had to pay advertisers $20 million in apology funds for how little eyeballs they got, the powers got the message. They made 2016’s New Year’s Eve semis earlier in the day and moved four Playoffs off New Year’s Eve altogether. Those were this season’s, 2019’s, 2024’s, and 2025’s.
This season’s games couldn’t be on December 30 because that’s an NFL day, and the two levels traditionally avoid conflicts most of the time. So December 29 it is, three days before the day long thought of as the biggest bowl games day. This is an improvement, though! And at least it’s a Saturday.
A particular problem was that in 2015, New Year’s Eve was a Thursday. The federal holiday for the new year is usually January 1, which means a bunch of us have work on the 31st. Who wants to work on New Year’s Eve in the first place? And who wants to then have the Playoff happening during the time you should be letting loose to celebrate the holiday?
“We tried to do something special with New Year’s Eve, even when it fell on a weekday,” Playoff executive director Bill Hancock said back then. “But after studying this to see if it worked, we think we can do better. These adjustments will allow more people to experience the games they enjoy so much. For these four years, our previous call is reversed.”
From now on, as long as the Playoff sticks with a four-team format, the semifinals are going to be on Saturdays and holidays only.
That will eliminate the work concern for a lot of people, though certainly not all.
It won’t totally get the biggest games off New Year’s Eve, though. The Playoff semis are still set for the night of the 31st in 2021 (a Friday) and 2022 (a Saturday).
An ideal world would have the Playoff never on New Year’s Eve, in my opinion. I’d rather be doing other things that night. When you have two really fun things — the Playoff and New Year’s Eve — why put them up against one another? Maybe you’re lucky and the friends and family you’re with all want to watch the game(s) while being festive, but maybe not.
But these are worries for another year.
For now, enjoy three more years of the Playoff not being on December 31.
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