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This Season’s College Football Playoff Schedule Makes Little Sense

The CFP’s biggest priority should be to avoid having its postseason games compete with the NFL.
Jimmy Traina|
The College Football Playoff will end on Jan. 25 this season.
The College Football Playoff will end on Jan. 25 this season. | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

1. Times and networks for the College Football Playoff schedule were released Monday, and it’s far from ideal.

The playoff will begin on Dec. 18. The championship game won’t be played until Jan. 25. There is a 10-day gap between the second semifinal game on Jan. 15 and the title game on Jan. 25.

By comparison, this year’s national championship game was played on Jan. 19.

Once again, the CFP games will go head-to-head against NFL games. And once again, ESPN shoved those games off to TNT to get destroyed in the ratings. ESPN also sold off one of the semifinal games, on Jan. 14, to TNT.

On Saturday, Dec. 19, there will be playoff games at 3:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. ET. Meanwhile, the Seahawks will play the Eagles at 5 p.m. and the Bears visit the Bills at 8:20 p.m.

The two things college football needs to do more than anything are 1) not go head-to-head with the NFL—ever, and 2) end the season much earlier, because the deeper you go into January, when the NFL playoffs are front and center, the less interest casual fans will have in your sport.

I fully understand that college football always wants to play on Saturdays, but if the NFL has Saturday games scheduled, college football needs to move to any other day of the week (except Sundays, of course).

This past season, the national title game between Miami and Indiana drew a whopping 30.1 million viewers. Yet, in a year where ratings for almost every single sporting event are up thanks to Nielsen’s new viewership measurement system. overall CFP viewership was down 7%. That shows you how bad viewership was for the early rounds.

The easiest fix for that: Get away from the NFL. That will benefit the sport and fans who’d like to consume both college football and the NFL.

2. Nobody was more thrilled with the Rams acquiring Myles Garrett on Monday than the NFL’s broadcast partners. Los Angeles is slated for seven stand-alone games this upcoming season, the most in the NFL, including in Week 1 on Thursday night in Australia against the Niners on Netflix and in the first-ever Thanksgiving Eve game against the Packers also on Netflix.

3. The viewership number for Sunday’s Spurs-Thunder Game 7 on NBC won’t be out until late Tuesday afternoon, but I would expect it to be extremely strong. Game 6, last Thursday drew 11.6 million viewers making it the most watched game of the 2025–26 season.

It was also the most-watched conference finals Game 6 since 2002.

4. One of the more underrated dumb traditions in sports is politicians making “bets.” How is this still a thing? Oooooh, pizza vs. barbecue! How radical! I’m on the edge of my seat to see how this one plays out.

5. If you missed it on Monday, I spoke to legendary Knicks broadcaster Marv Albert about a wide array of topics surrounding the NBA Finals.

One piece of news from the interview is that Albert revealed NBC wanted him to call a Spurs-Sixers game early in the season, but he had to turn down the offer because he was suffering from some throat issues. Check out the entire Q&A here.

6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina is a mailbag episode.

The show starts with Sal Licata from SNY TV and The Sal Licata Show discussing the Knicks’ playoff run, the NBA Finals and the Finals betting odds. Next up is a conversation about Netflix’s new Martin Short documentary and the passing of Rob Base.

After that is a lengthy mailbag segment where I answer questions from listeners. Among the topics people asked about: Can the NYPD handle the MSG crowd if the Knicks win the NBA title; Which broadcast booth would we like to hear call one more game; What question do people want the media to ask Mike Vrabel; best and worst streaming services; Danhausen; book and television show recommendations; movies that get multiple viewings; encores at concerts and much more.

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

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Howard Stern’s longtime partner Robin Quivers announced on Monday that after being diagnosed 14 years ago, she is now cancer-free.

This seems like the perfect time to remember a classic Robin moment with Baba Booey as the victim.

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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