Welcome to the first edition of The A Block, Awful Announcing’s new daily sports media newsletter. We’ll be in your inboxes Monday-Friday each week with exclusive commentary and a recap of all the day’s events in the sports media world that you need to know. At least we’ve already made it further than Venu Sports, may it rest in peace.
Make sure you click here to subscribe so you don’t miss a thing!
The 2024 college football season concluded on Monday night with Ohio State claiming a national championship victory over Notre Dame. The win completed a remarkable turnaround for a Buckeyes program that seemed completely lost just over a month ago after a shock loss to Michigan.
So in honor of the first year of the 12-team College Football Playoff, here are 12 lessons learned from a college football campaign unlike any other.
-
The expanded playoff is a winner: Purists may have an issue with celebrating a two-loss OSU team as a national champion given they lost their fourth game in a row to their rival and didn’t even compete for a conference championship. But this is a new, NFL-like era for the sport. After Ohio State defeated four Top 10 teams on the way to the title in the playoff (including #2, 3, and 4 in the final AP Poll), nobody can say they didn’t deserve it.
-
The regular season still matters…: The expanded playoff came with fears that the regular season would be diluted. While there is some merit to every game not having a do-or-die nature, the fact is ratings only increased throughout the season and even for non-descript bowl games. If anything, the ability for more teams to make the postseason proved the exact opposite and gave the regular season more juice.
-
…Conference championship games don’t: Not everything was perfect for the CFP this year. The most obvious fix for the CFP revolves around not giving the top four conference winners byes and doing something about a conference championship weekend that saw teams that lost get better draws than teams that won. Conference title games are money-makers, but they may need to be sacrificed for the greater good.
-
Stop the madness: ESPN has simply got to ditch the weekly CFP rankings show. However much content it creates, the toxicity and negativity it creates is a huge drag on the sport. Thankfully ESPN changed their tone during the playoff after a dismal first weekend and finally remembered that people can actually like watching games instead of just debating narratives like cable news.
-
Less is more: The person often at the center of criticism for ESPN this year was lead analyst Kirk Herbstreit. From his ups and downs with Ohio State fans to his harsh criticism of Indiana, Herbstreit’s presence was way more stressful than it should have been for someone as good on the air as he is. It would be wise for ESPN and Herbstreit for him to take a step back and focus on calling games so that he doesn’t have to bear the entire weight of the sport on his shoulders.
-
Hail Saban: The former Alabama coach was a natural in his first season on College GameDay and excelled in his new analyst role. We just can’t wait for his next showdown with Shane Gillis.
-
GameDay gains – Speaking of College GameDay, the pre-eminent pregame show set new viewership records this season, growing the gap once again between themselves and Big Noon Kickoff. The formula they found this year with Saban, Pat McAfee, and guests and features was the perfect mix.
-
Big Noon’s big dilemma – Fans revolted against Big Noon Saturday this year, especially with so many crucial Big Ten matchups airing early in the day week after week. But Fox is still stubbornly committed to the idea so it looks like the uneasy relationship with Fox and college football fans will continue.
-
Big Ten balance of power – With Fox holding the cards for Big Noon and the Big Ten, the conference’s other partners in CBS and NBC were left with underwhelming schedules considering the strength and depth of the league. Outside of the Oregon-Ohio State game in primetime on NBC, it was hard to find a must-see game on their calendar all year. Both networks will be hoping that changes drastically in 2025.
-
The SEC on ABC is a powerhouse: The SEC may have lost its position as the dominant force on the field to the Big Ten, but there’s no denying the strength of its television product. The new fully exclusive ESPN-SEC deal was a monster success for both sides.
-
The Coach Prime Effect – While Deion Sanders may not have won Sports Illustrated’s Sports Person of the Year this year, his Colorado Buffaloes were way more impressive on the field in year two in Boulder. Even if it didn’t reach the hysteria that we saw early last fall, Colorado is still a major TV draw… as long as Deion doesn’t go to Dallas.
-
Bristol’s big win – After the first year of the expanded playoff, ESPN has to be celebrating the fact that they won the exclusive rights to the event. Even with sub-licensing a couple of games to TNT, ESPN owned the entire month. Given the SEC-Big Ten Power 2 split with ESPN and Fox-NBC-CBS on opposite sides throughout the season, it was a stroke of genius by Bristol to outmaneuver their competition and basically make them a non-factor come playoff time. Don’t tell Jimmy Pitaro, but there’s a reason why they are still called the worldwide leader in sports.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
