National title game still feels like afterthought

Bowl games tend to eclipse U.S. college finale

ATLANTA • The College Football Playoff is here to stay.

The national championship game is still trying to make its mark.

The four-year-old title game remains a bit of an afterthought compared to the well-entrenched bowl system, from its lack of a catchy name to its scattered timing to its scaled-backed format.

“Every sport has its elements that fans might want to change or tweak or adjust,” said Burke Magnus, ESPN’s executive vice-president from programming and scheduling. “College football may have a few of those as well.”

The four-team playoff began with the 2014 season, replacing a BCS system that matched the top two teams in a national championship game while leaving the bowls largely unchanged.

Now, the six major bowls — Rose, Sugar, Cotton, Orange, Peach and Fiesta — rotate a pair of semifinal games that are generally played on New Year’s Day, long the traditional end to the college football season.

The four major bowls that are not semifinals each year essentially divvy up the best of the non-playoff teams, also creating some attractive matchups. And, of course, the remaining bowls — a staggering 33 in all this season — are still around to provide a smorgasbord of post-season games/television programming from mid-December to the first day of the new year.

By the time the national championship game rolls around — Monday night’s Alabama-Georgia matchup falls exactly a week after the semifinals, though the timing varies from year to year — it almost feels extraneous to the season.

Bill Hancock, executive director of the College Football Playoff, doesn’t view that way.

“We see it as a three-game package,” he said. “The championship game becomes the iconic event. It is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”

This season’s semifinal games were highlighted by a thrilling Rose Bowl, in which Georgia rallied to beat Oklahoma 54-48 in a double overtime. The television ratings were huge, an average of 27 million viewers across ESPN and ESPN2 — a 39 per cent increase over last year’s early semifinal.

The ratings dipped for the nightcap, Alabama’s methodical 24-6 victory Clemson in a rematch of the last two national championship games, but the 21.1 million viewers were still a 10 per cent increase over the previous year’s second semifinal.

The national championship game will surely surpass the Sugar Bowl ratings, but it may have a hard time matching those Rose Bowl numbers — especially given the all-Southeastern Conference title game.

Last year’s national championship game drew about 26.7 million viewers.

“The semifinals are obviously important,” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said. “This year, you had two traditional games on New Year’s Day that I think magnified it.”

But, he quickly added, “I don’t look at this game as taking a back seat to anything.”

Organizers have attempted to spice things up for the fans.

In Atlanta, a series of concerts was held throughout the weekend at Centennial Olympic Park. Borrowing a page from the Super Bowl, breakout star Kendrick Lamar is set to perform as part of the title game’s firstever halftime performance. From left, Georgia running backs Sony Michel, Nick Chubb and Elijah Holyfield at practice. it nationalpost.com