SI

College Football Should Move First-Round Playoff Games To Weeknights

It doesn’t benefit anyone for college football to go head-to-head with the NFL.

Jimmy Traina

The first round of the College Football Playoff will have to compete with a pair of NFL games on Saturday.
The first round of the College Football Playoff will have to compete with a pair of NFL games on Saturday. / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

1. Saturday will feature wall-to-wall football between three College Football Playoff games and two NFL games. The problem, though, is some of those games will be going head-to-head against each other, which does not serve the sports fan.

Miami and Texas A&M will play a standalone game at noon ET. Tulane will face Ole Miss at 3:30 p.m., while James Madison plays Oregon at 7:30 p.m. Meanwhile, Fox will air Eagles-Commanders at 5 p.m. and Packers-Bears at 8:20 p.m. (Alabama and Oklahoma face off tonight.)

The NFL has always played on Saturdays late in the season. The overlap with college games has only become a problem since college football went to its 12-team playoff system beginning with last season.

To have the opening round games compete with the NFL just makes no sense. If college football decision-makers were smart, they’d move the opening round games from Saturday to Tuesday and Wednesday, with each day featuring a doubleheader. By playing those games on those two nights, college football will have the entire football audience to itself, and more importantly, won’t have to go up against the NFL, which is never a winning battle.

Think about how much better this week could’ve been with a Tuesday doubleheader of Tulane-Ole Miss at 5 p.m. ET and Alabama-Oklahoma at 8 p.m., followed by James Madison-Oregon and Miami-Texas A&M in those time slots on Wednesday.

But the way the schedule sets up now, college football just gets totally lost in the shuffle on Saturday. The viewership rating for the James Madison-Oregon game is going to be absolutely dreadful going against a monster Packers-Bears game. The way things are set up now, the network airing the early round gets hurt and football do, too..

Moving to a Tuesday-Wednesday setup is a win-win for everybody.

2. This week’s SI Media With Jimmy Traina features an interview with the voice of Monday Night Football, Joe Buck.

The veteran broadcaster talks about ESPN’s end-of-season schedule, which will include two playoff games, how he handles “storylines” while calling a game and how everyone at Disney is preparing for ABC/ESPN airing next year’s Super Bowl.

In addition, Buck also sheds light on the Troy Aikman-Caleb Williams dust-up from earlier in the season, talks about being named the Ford C. Frick Award winner by the Baseball Hall of Fame, whether he has any interest in hosting Good Morning America and much more.

Following Buck, Sal Licata from SNY TV joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week’s topics include WFAN parting ways with Sal, last Sunday’s awesome slate of NFL games, the state of sports media, Christmas, Nurse Jackie, Rob Reiner’s career and more.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

3. WWE couldn’t script as dramatic a heel turn as we’ve seen with Puka Nacua. After already getting in trouble this week for making an antisemetic gesture on a livestream and for ripping NFL refs, Nacua thought the wise thing to do immediately after the Rams lost to the Seahawks was to again rip the refs on social media.

I can’t figure out what’s more pathetic: Nacua having social media on his brain minutes after losing an overtime heartbreaker or him ripping the officials when they actually got the two-point conversion call correct.

4. If you turn the volume up, this will be the best hockey fight that you ever watch.

5. While everyone was watching the Rams-Seahawks classic Thursday night, ESPN2 aired the Xbox Bowl between Missouri State and Arkansas State. And this is what you missed after Arkansas State’s 34-28 win.

I’ll never understand how some people can think there are too many bowls.

6. This might very well be the dumbest story/piece of clickbait I’ve seen all year.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Here’s the perfect video to close out the week as we head toward Christmas. Macaulay Culkin talks about where his kids stand with the greatest Christmas movie of all time, Home Alone.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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