On November 5th, millions of people around the country will be glued into their televisions to watch a history making event. Did you think we were talking about the Presidential Election? Of course not. It’s the first College Football Playoff rankings, baby!
In what may be the most hilarious example of poor timing ever, the first College Football Playoff rankings in the expanded 12-team era will be released a week from today at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday November 5th.
At the same exact time, the first polls will be closed and we’ll have the first wave of results in the 2024 Presidential Election. Advantage: Election Night.
College football hasn’t ever really been concerned with scheduling around world events. After all, at the advent of the College Football Playoff, executive director Bill Hancock infamously said that college football would “change the paradigm of New Year’s Eve.” Playoff games on New Year’s Eve have persevered over the years, but the New Year’s Day traditional timeslots usually draw more viewers.
And it’s not just this year with the absurdity of the first rankings being released at an inopportune time. Last year, the first rankings were released on Halloween night when millions of families would have been busy trick or treating and gorging themselves on candy.
What doesn’t make a lot of sense about this is that the CFP rankings are purely a made for TV product. CFP rankings in October Rankings in October have no bearing whatsoever on what the final rankings will be. And the playoff committee themselves have delivered that message consistently from the very beginning as they have jumped teams over another at the end of the season on a whim. Just ask Florida State!
So really, all we’re doing here is fostering debate and talking points that can be used by ESPN and fans/media to build narratives for the second half of the season. And it’ll be extra strange this year with the expanded playoffs as some teams will feel extremely safe while others further down the rankings will be the ones fighting for a playoff berth.
CFP rankings have traditionally been released on Tuesday evenings on ESPN in the second half of the season. But there’s no reason why Tuesday at 7 PM ET is a sacred date and time that deserves equal reverence as the Rose Bowl. The entire NBA is taking the day off on Tuesday to encourage engagement in the democratic process. Why the CFP rankings couldn’t be released on Get Up or First Take, or even on a special edition of SportsCenter in the early afternoon is a mystery. Or even, gasp, on a Wednesday!
