ESPN, College Football Playoff Criticized As Peach Bowl Ends After Midnight

The ending of the Peach Bowl, with Ohio State missing a field goal against Georgia with a trip to the College Football Playoff national championship game on the line, coincided perfectly with the clock striking midnight on New Year’s Eve. Not surprisingly, many television viewers were watching the missed kick instead of the ball dropping in Times Square.

This scheduling, the second straight year and fourth overall when the CFP semifinals were played on New Year’s Eve, received some backlash on social media. Many observers were expecting the second semifinal to be over by the time the clock turned to 2023, so when it dragged on, those viewers were unhappy.

Dear @espn, we need to talk. So you’re telling me you can interrupt every college football game when Aaron Judge comes up to bat but we can get some sort of split screen for the ball drop at midnight with ABC? We must fix this going forward!!
— AG.O (@ag_peach) January 1, 2023

Was at a friend’s house for New Year’s Eve and ESPN was on at midnight; so instead of Dick Clark or Dolly, we watched Ohio State drop the ball. #OSUvsGA #HappyNewYear
— actualtotoro on 💙☁️ (@actualtotoro) January 1, 2023

.@espn so you can only be a football fan or a family man. Not both if you live east coast. Seriously crap planning for natty semifinal game where the final seconds of the game are literally at the stoke of midnight. Think about that.
Who. Thought. That. Was. A. Good. Idea ? 🤦🏼‍♂️
— Kevin Jullion (@kevjullion) January 1, 2023

I can’t believe I am saying this…but having this football game coinciding with midnight seems wrong. What are we doing here guys. #CFBPlayoff #ESPN
— NapoleonBonerPart (@PartBoner) January 1, 2023

I wonder how much control ABC/ESPN had over the timing of the game vs the midnight hour. Doesn't seem like great scheduling....
— Todd (@ToddRusher) January 1, 2023

The original reasoning for the scheduling was to avoid interfering with the Rose Bowl when that game wasn’t part of the semifinals. After back-to-back semifinals on New Year’s Eve in 2015 and ’16, the CFP management committee said it wasn’t going to schedule games on New Year’s Eve if it fell on a weekend.

However, the past two sets of semifinals in 2021 and ’22 were scheduled on New Year’s Eve because it fell on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Next year, when the Rose Bowl will again host a semifinal, the CFP games will be played on New Year’s Day again.

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