At least it's a first step.
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The College Football Playoff received a ton of criticism having the two semifinal games on New Year's Eve, as opposed to having them every year on New Year's Day, which was so successful in the CFP's inaugural season. The criticism was seen as well-warranted after the semis — featuring an Orange Bowl Clemson-Oklahoma matchup and Alabama-Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl —both got pretty awful ratings.
Now, it looks like the CFP is going to try and do something about it. The playoff announced on Monday that the semifinal games, which will still be played on New Year's Eve on Dec. 31, will kickoff at 3:00p.m. EST and 7:00 p.m. EST — an hour earlier than last year's 4:00p.m. and 8:00p.m. EST kickoff times. This year's semis will be the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta, Ga. and Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz.
You might be wondering why the committee thinks that moving the kickoff times up an hour might make a difference, especially after last year's abysmal ratings. But this year it actually might work due to one fact — New Year's Eve falls on a Saturday afternoon in 2016. This year, most people won't have to be at work when the games start, which will likely monumentally affect the ratings in a positive way.
"As we committed earlier this year, we have looked at the landscape for the upcoming season and are confident that this change will make it easier for more fans to watch the games on television and also will benefit fans who will attend the games in person," Hancock said via the official release. "The semifinals will be played on Saturday for the first time."
Additionally, there will be a major change to the Orange Bowl this year. Instead of having the Orange Bowl air at noon on New Year's Eve as previously planned, the Orange Bowl will be played a day earlier — on Friday, Dec. 30 in a primetime slot on ESPN.
This year's Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, Rose Bowl Game and Allstate Sugar Bowl will be played as scheduled on Monday, January 2, the traditional date in years when January 1 falls on a Sunday. It's obvious that the bad ratings caused a little bit of panic within the CFP — enough at least to cause them to make some pretty major changes. Having NYE on a Saturday this year will probably make a huge difference in the ratings, and could potentially overshadow, at least for a year, the issues with having the semis on NYE when the holiday falls on a weekday.
For now though, we'll just have to wait and see if these changes pay off.
