CFP moves semifinals after TV ratings plummet

The College Football Playoff has abandoned a plan to play most of its semifinals on New Year’s Eves after television ratings tumbled last year, moving the dates of future games to ensure they will be played either on a weekend or a holiday.

The changes will start with the 2018 season. The TV ratings for last year’s semifinal games played on Thursday, Dec. 31, dropped 36 percent from the semifinals played the season before on New Year’s Day.

This season’s semifinals are still set for Saturday, Dec. 31. Next season’s playoff is scheduled to be back on Jan. 1. In 2018, the games initially scheduled to be played on New Year’s Eve, will now be played Saturday, Dec. 29.

The 2019 games will move to Saturday, Dec. 28.

The other seasons affected by the change are 2024, when the semifinals will be moved to Saturday, Dec. 28, and 2025, when the games will be played on Saturday, Dec. 27.

“We had a healthy discussion with a lot of people who love college football and we concluded that making these changes would be the right thing to do for our fans,” College Football Playoff Executive Director Bill Hancock said in a statement.

WMU

Western Michigan coach P.J. Fleck would love to be able to go toe-to-toe with Jim Harbaugh, bouncing around to all sorts of satellite camps in the offseason.

“If we had the budget, I would have been right next to him. We would have been competing, how many numbers we could get,” Fleck said.

Fleck and other coaches in the Mid-American Conference can certainly benefit from satellite camps, but the issue remains a complicated one. On Thursday, MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher called for some limits on when and where the camps can be held.

Live-contact practice

The NCAA football oversight committee recommended Division I football programs hold only one “live-contact” practice per week.

The current guidelines, which are not enforceable rules, allow two live practices per week. The new guidelines announced Wednesday will take effect this season.

Live practices are defined as those that involve tackling to the ground and fullspeed blocking, and can occur in full or half pads.

Live contact does not include thudding, when players are not taken to the ground.