NFL isn't happy with college football's new playoff schedule: insiders

As college football celebrates the historic expansion of its playoff format from four to 12 teams, that also entails an expansion of the postseason schedule, with more meaningful football to be played during the month of December.

And while that's great news for college football, the idea of more games involving high-profile teams being played during that time of year has aroused the attention of some of the NFL brass, and they're not very happy about it.

Veteran sports business reporter John Ourand revealed some of the tension that exists inside the NFL office amid the realization that the league, which plays some of its later regular season games on Saturdays in December, will have to compete head-to-head with important postseason college football now.

Some people at 345 Park Ave "were not happy about C.F.P.'s chutzpah in scheduling games that day, and they have been left scratching their heads as to why C.F.P. would encroach on their veritable turf," Ourand revealed.

Of course, some would argue that Saturday is in fact college football's "veritable turf," as it has been for the last 150-plus years, several decades before organized pro football even came into existence.

But in the intervening years, there's also no doubt that the NFL has emerged as the unchallenged king of American sports, dominating the airwaves, interest of fans, and the broadcast television ratings: the most recent Super Bowl was noted by analysts to be the most-watched TV event in American history.

The current schedule finds the College Football Playoff will air first-round games on campus on Fri., Dec. 20 and Sat., Dec. 21, and right now, it's up to the NFL to react.

How will they? Probably by not doing anything except what they have been, which is to air late season football on that Saturday in December.

The NFL has enough pull to air games when it likes and thus far has been able to shut out the competition. Just ask the NBA, which saw pro football move into the former's traditional Christmas Day slot in recent years, and get trounced by the NFL in the ratings.

College football — which is already looking into expanding its 12-team playoff to 14 teams as soon as 2026 — could theoretically move that part of its postseason schedule to some other day of the week, but the sport is unwilling to cede its traditional Saturday identity. And the NFL is unwilling to cede any broadcast window to anyone.

Either one side will back down and change its schedule, or college football and the NFL will directly compete with one another, and let the viewers sort it out.

It's too early to see where this goes, but it remains one of the more notable questions surrounding College Football Playoff expansion going forward.

(Puck)

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