Ok—so this may sound gimmicky, but the final week of the season is owned by the Big 10 and SEC and their huge rivalry games, which has by and large pushed the Big 12 and ACC aside and out of pretty much all the rivalry week time slots.

My proposal here is for the Big 12 to make Week 12 their big event (get the association with 12?). Either make this a true rivalry week for the whole league or at least try to schedule the best 3-4 rivalries (based on the previous season’s performance) to make a mark on the tv ratings.

(11-10-2025 06:14 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Ok—so this may sound gimmicky, but the final week of the season is owned by the Big 10 and SEC and their huge rivalry games, which has by and large pushed the Big 12 and ACC aside and out of pretty much all the rivalry week time slots.

My proposal here is for the Big 12 to make Week 12 their big event (get the association with 12?). Either make this a true rivalry week for the whole league or at least try to schedule the best 3-4 rivalries (based on the previous season’s performance) to make a mark on the tv ratings.

Everyone other than the SEC and OSU/Mich should vacate rivalry week. Doing otherwise is taking what should be your showpiece game and letting it get run over by the aforementioned teams. Iowa and ISU and Utah and BYU have the right of it and benefit from playing their big game earlier.

(11-10-2025 06:14 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Ok—so this may sound gimmicky, but the final week of the season is owned by the Big 10 and SEC and their huge rivalry games, which has by and large pushed the Big 12 and ACC aside and out of pretty much all the rivalry week time slots.

My proposal here is for the Big 12 to make Week 12 their big event (get the association with 12?). Either make this a true rivalry week for the whole league or at least try to schedule the best 3-4 rivalries (based on the previous season’s performance) to make a mark on the tv ratings.

Big 12 doesn't have many nationally recognized rivalries. Arizona-Arizona St. and BYU-Utah. Kansas is a basketball schools so KU-KSU doesn't register. Farmaggedon wasn't a year end game. TCU-Baylor isn't well known nationally and isn't one of those always at year end.

Well Utah-BYU this year was vs. Tennessee-Alabama, was that any better than Rivalry Week?

The best week is probably Cupcake Week. I criticize the SEC often for this but to be honest the Big Ten (at least Ohio State and Michigan) aren't much better. The only difference is OSU and UM play conference games instead of G6/FCS. This year Ohio State is playing Rutgers and Michigan is playing Maryland the week before they play each other. Is is that much better than them playing MAC teams?

There is precedent. California and Stanford are playing Cupcake Week and USC-UCLA often do to accommodate some other school...

(11-10-2025 06:21 PM)The Beaver Wrote:  

(11-10-2025 06:14 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Ok—so this may sound gimmicky, but the final week of the season is owned by the Big 10 and SEC and their huge rivalry games, which has by and large pushed the Big 12 and ACC aside and out of pretty much all the rivalry week time slots.

My proposal here is for the Big 12 to make Week 12 their big event (get the association with 12?). Either make this a true rivalry week for the whole league or at least try to schedule the best 3-4 rivalries (based on the previous season’s performance) to make a mark on the tv ratings.

Everyone other than the SEC and OSU/Mich should vacate rivalry week. Doing otherwise is taking what should be your showpiece game and letting it get run over by the aforementioned teams. Iowa and ISU and Utah and BYU have the right of it and benefit from playing their big game earlier.

Nah, we good

(11-10-2025 06:14 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Ok—so this may sound gimmicky, but the final week of the season is owned by the Big 10 and SEC and their huge rivalry games, which has by and large pushed the Big 12 and ACC aside and out of pretty much all the rivalry week time slots.

My proposal here is for the Big 12 to make Week 12 their big event (get the association with 12?). Either make this a true rivalry week for the whole league or at least try to schedule the best 3-4 rivalries (based on the previous season’s performance) to make a mark on the tv ratings.

The Big 12 got better ratings for Farmageddon in Ireland on Week 0 than they would have on a crowded calendar later in the year.

They'd never get all 16 schools to sign up to play Week 0 overseas at the same time, but the ratings are better when no one else is playing.

This is the college football landscape now. The SEC is king, the Big Ten is runner up, and the food chain follows. All of you desperate for watching college football on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, who are you watching? The MAC. Is it a coincidence they're the ones doing it? Of course not.

I agree, but because it’s solid thinking, it won’t happen.

The college football “system” is working exactly as intended.

(11-11-2025 03:30 AM)AuzGrams Wrote:  I agree, but because it’s solid thinking, it won’t happen.

The college football “system” is working exactly as intended.

Rivalry Week has existed forever so there is nothing new about playing your rivals the last week of the year.

Moving Carolina vs Dook (or State) or Arizona vs ASU is not going to beat the Iron Bowl in ratings, but it also isn’t beating Bama vs anybody in the SEC.

(11-11-2025 06:25 AM)Dr Dawgma III Wrote:  

(11-11-2025 03:30 AM)AuzGrams Wrote:  I agree, but because it’s solid thinking, it won’t happen.

The college football “system” is working exactly as intended.

Rivalry Week has existed forever so there is nothing new about playing your rivals the last week of the year.

Moving Carolina vs Dook (or State) or Arizona vs ASU is not going to beat the Iron Bowl in ratings, but it also isn’t beating Bama vs anybody in the SEC.

I'm not sure I understand your position. The NCAA Basketball Tournament is probably the greatest spectacle in sports.

(11-10-2025 06:21 PM)The Beaver Wrote:  

(11-10-2025 06:14 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Ok—so this may sound gimmicky, but the final week of the season is owned by the Big 10 and SEC and their huge rivalry games, which has by and large pushed the Big 12 and ACC aside and out of pretty much all the rivalry week time slots.

My proposal here is for the Big 12 to make Week 12 their big event (get the association with 12?). Either make this a true rivalry week for the whole league or at least try to schedule the best 3-4 rivalries (based on the previous season’s performance) to make a mark on the tv ratings.

Everyone other than the SEC and OSU/Mich should vacate rivalry week. Doing otherwise is taking what should be your showpiece game and letting it get run over by the aforementioned teams. Iowa and ISU and Utah and BYU have the right of it and benefit from playing their big game earlier.

The only B1G rivalry game that's a ratings blockbuster is Ohio State-Michigan. How many of the SEC's are surefire ratings hits? Ole Miss-Mississippi St? Kentucky-Louisville? Tennessee-Vanderbilt? Georgia-Georgia Tech? Texas-TAMU might be a good draw, but that isn't even Texas' true rivalry game, since they didn't play A&M much after they left the Big 12.

The sad reality, however, is that neither the ACC nor the Big 12 have media blockbuster rivalries no matter when they are played.

tough to own a week when SEC even with a bad schedule still has Georgia/Texas and Alabama/Oklahoma.

(11-11-2025 07:59 AM)AuzGrams Wrote:  

(11-11-2025 06:25 AM)Dr Dawgma III Wrote:  

(11-11-2025 03:30 AM)AuzGrams Wrote:  I agree, but because it’s solid thinking, it won’t happen.

The college football “system” is working exactly as intended.

Rivalry Week has existed forever so there is nothing new about playing your rivals the last week of the year.

Moving Carolina vs Dook (or State) or Arizona vs ASU is not going to beat the Iron Bowl in ratings, but it also isn’t beating Bama vs anybody in the SEC.

I'm not sure I understand your position. The NCAA Basketball Tournament is probably the greatest spectacle in sports.

Who is talking about the Big Dance? I’m saying moving your rivals off Rivalry Week isn’t going to move the needle when the SEC and B1G have marquee games every week.

(11-11-2025 07:59 AM)AuzGrams Wrote:  

(11-11-2025 06:25 AM)Dr Dawgma III Wrote:  

(11-11-2025 03:30 AM)AuzGrams Wrote:  I agree, but because it’s solid thinking, it won’t happen.

The college football “system” is working exactly as intended.

Rivalry Week has existed forever so there is nothing new about playing your rivals the last week of the year.

Moving Carolina vs Dook (or State) or Arizona vs ASU is not going to beat the Iron Bowl in ratings, but it also isn’t beating Bama vs anybody in the SEC.

I'm not sure I understand your position. The NCAA Basketball Tournament is probably the greatest spectacle in sports.

I think he meant Duke-UNC in football. There's probably no Saturday timeslot or Labor Day / Thanksgiving Weekend timeslot where UNC-Duke or UNC-NC STate beats the SEC game in that timeslot.

that MAY overstate the case. Or it may not, data required.

(11-11-2025 09:52 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(11-11-2025 07:59 AM)AuzGrams Wrote:  

(11-11-2025 06:25 AM)Dr Dawgma III Wrote:  

(11-11-2025 03:30 AM)AuzGrams Wrote:  I agree, but because it’s solid thinking, it won’t happen.

The college football “system” is working exactly as intended.

Rivalry Week has existed forever so there is nothing new about playing your rivals the last week of the year.

Moving Carolina vs Dook (or State) or Arizona vs ASU is not going to beat the Iron Bowl in ratings, but it also isn’t beating Bama vs anybody in the SEC.

I'm not sure I understand your position. The NCAA Basketball Tournament is probably the greatest spectacle in sports.

I think he meant Duke-UNC in football. There's probably no Saturday timeslot or Labor Day / Thanksgiving Weekend timeslot where UNC-Duke or UNC-NC STate beats the SEC game in that timeslot.

that MAY overstate the case. Or it may not, data required.

That might be true for any week, not just those weeks.

(11-11-2025 10:15 AM)ken d Wrote:  

(11-11-2025 09:52 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(11-11-2025 07:59 AM)AuzGrams Wrote:  

(11-11-2025 06:25 AM)Dr Dawgma III Wrote:  

(11-11-2025 03:30 AM)AuzGrams Wrote:  I agree, but because it’s solid thinking, it won’t happen.

The college football “system” is working exactly as intended.

Rivalry Week has existed forever so there is nothing new about playing your rivals the last week of the year.

Moving Carolina vs Dook (or State) or Arizona vs ASU is not going to beat the Iron Bowl in ratings, but it also isn’t beating Bama vs anybody in the SEC.

I'm not sure I understand your position. The NCAA Basketball Tournament is probably the greatest spectacle in sports.

I think he meant Duke-UNC in football. There's probably no Saturday timeslot or Labor Day / Thanksgiving Weekend timeslot where UNC-Duke or UNC-NC STate beats the SEC game in that timeslot.

that MAY overstate the case. Or it may not, data required.

That might be true for any week, not just those weeks.

Right, I included Saturdays. If you want UNC-NC State to win a timeslot and command a national audience, you probably have to put it on a Friday night or Thursday night, and then you're still up against the NFL or up against a game on Fox.

OK I flipped through Wikipedia. 2024, 2023 the NC-NC State game was on ACC Network. 2022 it was on ABC on Friday afternoon, with North Carolina ranked #17 going in, looks like they were leading the Coastal Division. 3.6M viewers.

(11-10-2025 06:14 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Ok—so this may sound gimmicky, but the final week of the season is owned by the Big 10 and SEC and their huge rivalry games, which has by and large pushed the Big 12 and ACC aside and out of pretty much all the rivalry week time slots.

My proposal here is for the Big 12 to make Week 12 their big event (get the association with 12?). Either make this a true rivalry week for the whole league or at least try to schedule the best 3-4 rivalries (based on the previous season’s performance) to make a mark on the tv ratings.

Instead of Week 12, it should be Strong 12.