The NFL has ruined what used to be one of the best TV traditions about college football and that was the Thursday night games kicking off the college football weekend.

Thursday to Saturday makes sense. Why didn't NFL similarly take the Friday to Sunday gap? This has moved some of those Thursday games to Friday night, and ESPN has basically decided not to compete with it. And IMO, the invasion of Friday night by college football is more harmful to both colleges and high schools than it would be for the NFL since the NFL doesn't draft high schoolers.

There were no Thursday night games to open the season. There is none this week and there are only one each the next two weeks.

Just my take but a really disappointing movement where the NFL has infringed upon the college game. And by the way the NFL Players Assoc despises it because it's really hard for professional players to play on Sunday and then turn around and play again on Thurs.

I believe it used to be a law that the NFL couldn’t play on Friday or Saturday during college and high school season. It was a provision of their exemption from antitrust laws. I don’t think it’s legally required anymore, but they still avoid it so as not to poke the bear. But that’s why the Saturday night games do start after the NCAA is done. Old link with some of this info: http://mentalfloss.com/article/12751/why...d-football

I like the new arrangement, as i do not care about HS football. Now, i get college or NFL basically 5 straight days, Thursday through Monday.

(09-10-2019 09:43 AM)CenterSquarEd Wrote:  I believe it used to be a law that the NFL couldn’t play on Friday or Saturday during college and high school season. It was a provision of their exemption from antitrust laws. I don’t think it’s legally required anymore, but they still avoid it so as not to poke the bear. But that’s why the Saturday night games do start after the NCAA is done. Old link with some of this info: http://mentalfloss.com/article/12751/why...d-football

The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 is still binding, but has not been updated since passed. It was looked at a decade ago when NFL Network started airing games, but no changes were made.

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/dd67/c9...93eb93.pdf

When I hear Thursday Night Football, the original Blackout game that pitted top-5 WVU and Louisville teams in '06 instantly comes to mind.

(09-10-2019 09:11 AM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  The NFL has ruined what used to be one of the best TV traditions about college football and that was the Thursday night games kicking off the college football weekend.

(09-10-2019 10:46 AM)Renandpat Wrote:  The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 is still binding, but has not been updated since passed. It was looked at a decade ago when NFL Network started airing games, but no changes were made.

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/dd67/c9...93eb93.pdf

You’re right, this is still law. Here it is: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1293

(09-10-2019 09:11 AM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  The NFL has ruined what used to be one of the best TV traditions about college football and that was the Thursday night games kicking off the college football weekend.

Thursday to Saturday makes sense. Why didn't NFL similarly take the Friday to Sunday gap? This has moved some of those Thursday games to Friday night, and ESPN has basically decided not to compete with it. And IMO, the invasion of Friday night by college football is more harmful to both colleges and high schools than it would be for the NFL since the NFL doesn't draft high schoolers.

There were no Thursday night games to open the season. There is none this week and there are only one each the next two weeks.

Just my take but a really disappointing movement where the NFL has infringed upon the college game. And by the way the NFL Players Assoc despises it because it's really hard for professional players to play on Sunday and then turn around and play again on Thurs.

I agree with you. They should have taken over Tuesday. Then you have Sunday/Monday/Tuesday all together so its no more less than 5 days to the next scheduled game day. Leave Saturday to colleges, Friday to high school and Thursday to college and high school.

But the reason they did it is that Thursday is the best night of the week for TV. So better ratings.

I remember thurs night NFL in the mid 80s, then they got rid of it. I wish it was just sun/mon. I hate the short wk, the product isn't as good on the field. Do 2 mon. night gms every wk if you need to make up for the national audience loss of thurs.

(09-10-2019 09:53 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(09-10-2019 09:11 AM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  The NFL has ruined what used to be one of the best TV traditions about college football and that was the Thursday night games kicking off the college football weekend.

Thursday to Saturday makes sense. Why didn't NFL similarly take the Friday to Sunday gap? This has moved some of those Thursday games to Friday night, and ESPN has basically decided not to compete with it. And IMO, the invasion of Friday night by college football is more harmful to both colleges and high schools than it would be for the NFL since the NFL doesn't draft high schoolers.

There were no Thursday night games to open the season. There is none this week and there are only one each the next two weeks.

Just my take but a really disappointing movement where the NFL has infringed upon the college game. And by the way the NFL Players Assoc despises it because it's really hard for professional players to play on Sunday and then turn around and play again on Thurs.

I agree with you. They should have taken over Tuesday. Then you have Sunday/Monday/Tuesday all together so its no more less than 5 days to the next scheduled game day. Leave Saturday to colleges, Friday to high school and Thursday to college and high school.

But the reason they did it is that Thursday is the best night of the week for TV. So better ratings.

Yes, Friday is the worst night for TV ratings while Thursday is typically the best. Plus, Thursday ad rates often get a big boost because the movie studios make their biggest ad buys on that night for new releases for the upcoming weekend.

Ultimately, the NFL is the most powerful TV property of any kind anywhere (not just sports). The networks have shown that they’ll all bend to them as evidenced by the fact that they’re paying a ton of money to the NFL for Thursday night games that aren’t even exclusive to them (being simulcast on NFL Network and Amazon Prime).

I don't mind Thursday Night College or NFL. I don't care for high school football and never have.

(09-11-2019 03:18 AM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(09-10-2019 09:53 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(09-10-2019 09:11 AM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  The NFL has ruined what used to be one of the best TV traditions about college football and that was the Thursday night games kicking off the college football weekend.

Thursday to Saturday makes sense. Why didn't NFL similarly take the Friday to Sunday gap? This has moved some of those Thursday games to Friday night, and ESPN has basically decided not to compete with it. And IMO, the invasion of Friday night by college football is more harmful to both colleges and high schools than it would be for the NFL since the NFL doesn't draft high schoolers.

There were no Thursday night games to open the season. There is none this week and there are only one each the next two weeks.

Just my take but a really disappointing movement where the NFL has infringed upon the college game. And by the way the NFL Players Assoc despises it because it's really hard for professional players to play on Sunday and then turn around and play again on Thurs.

I agree with you. They should have taken over Tuesday. Then you have Sunday/Monday/Tuesday all together so its no more less than 5 days to the next scheduled game day. Leave Saturday to colleges, Friday to high school and Thursday to college and high school.

But the reason they did it is that Thursday is the best night of the week for TV. So better ratings.

Yes, Friday is the worst night for TV ratings while Thursday is typically the best. Plus, Thursday ad rates often get a big boost because the movie studios make their biggest ad buys on that night for new releases for the upcoming weekend.

Ultimately, the NFL is the most powerful TV property of any kind anywhere (not just sports). The networks have shown that they’ll all bend to them as evidenced by the fact that they’re paying a ton of money to the NFL for Thursday night games that aren’t even exclusive to them (being simulcast on NFL Network and Amazon Prime).

This. Thursday night is the biggest tv night of the week other than Sunday. That is why the NFL is on Thursday.

I get why the NFL does it but I don't understand why ESPN doesn't want to broadcast CFB to compete against it. If they put a decent game on it will get ratings

Sure there are some games still, but I miss the big Thursday night games we used to get in the mid 2000s. This year it looks like WVU/Baylor, two November ACC games, and the Egg Bowl is all we get after week one.

(09-11-2019 01:28 PM)Gamecock Wrote:  I get why the NFL does it but I don't understand why ESPN doesn't want to broadcast CFB to compete against it. If they put a decent game on it will get ratings

Sure there are some games still, but I miss the big Thursday night games we used to get in the mid 2000s. This year it looks like WVU/Baylor, two November ACC games, and the Egg Bowl is all we get after week one.

When the NFL moved to network TV, the college game ratings were cut in half.
https://247sports.com/Article/ESPNs-Thur...124077746/

Quote:Most obvious among them is the looming presence of the NFL. A new player on the Thursday night block from a broadcasting perspective, the NFL’s impact on Thursday shifted considerably in 2014 when it pivoted from broadcasting its Thursday night slate on NFL Network to an eight-game simulcast on network TV. The NFL went from 61.7 percent of households in 2013 to all of them in an instant.

The ratings difference is notable. ESPN’s Thursday night game drew an average of 2.33 million viewers in 2013. The next year, going up against eight NFL games on CBS, college football’s average viewership dropped to 2.05 million on Thursday. That number fell to 1.56 in 2015 and hovered in that range (1.65 million in 2016, 1.58 million in 2017) until this year.

The NFL is a ratings juggernaut. Last year its Thursday night games drew an average viewership of 12.09 million in head-to-head weeks against college football on ESPN.

Then October comes in and TNT's NBA Thursdays average 1.7M viewers.

(09-11-2019 02:11 PM)Renandpat Wrote:  

(09-11-2019 01:28 PM)Gamecock Wrote:  I get why the NFL does it but I don't understand why ESPN doesn't want to broadcast CFB to compete against it. If they put a decent game on it will get ratings

Sure there are some games still, but I miss the big Thursday night games we used to get in the mid 2000s. This year it looks like WVU/Baylor, two November ACC games, and the Egg Bowl is all we get after week one.

When the NFL moved to network TV, the college game ratings were cut in half.
https://247sports.com/Article/ESPNs-Thur...124077746/

Quote:Most obvious among them is the looming presence of the NFL. A new player on the Thursday night block from a broadcasting perspective, the NFL’s impact on Thursday shifted considerably in 2014 when it pivoted from broadcasting its Thursday night slate on NFL Network to an eight-game simulcast on network TV. The NFL went from 61.7 percent of households in 2013 to all of them in an instant.

The ratings difference is notable. ESPN’s Thursday night game drew an average of 2.33 million viewers in 2013. The next year, going up against eight NFL games on CBS, college football’s average viewership dropped to 2.05 million on Thursday. That number fell to 1.56 in 2015 and hovered in that range (1.65 million in 2016, 1.58 million in 2017) until this year.

The NFL is a ratings juggernaut. Last year its Thursday night games drew an average viewership of 12.09 million in head-to-head weeks against college football on ESPN.

Then October comes in and TNT's NBA Thursdays average 1.7M viewers.

Right - there's no point in ESPN (out of all networks) to try to compete against the NFL head-to-head. This isn't like Lifetime providing counter-programming for a different audience that has no interest in the NFL. Instead, the ESPN audience and NFL audience are largely one and the same (and to the extent that it's different, it's that the NFL audience is actually largely than the ESPN audience). They're better off saving their better college football programming for other nights (even if Friday might be lower rated in general) than burning it in a futile attempt to compete against the NFL. ESPN will get more traction with its SportsCenter episodes that provide pregame and postgame coverage of that NFL game than going against that tide.

(09-11-2019 02:32 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(09-11-2019 02:11 PM)Renandpat Wrote:  

(09-11-2019 01:28 PM)Gamecock Wrote:  I get why the NFL does it but I don't understand why ESPN doesn't want to broadcast CFB to compete against it. If they put a decent game on it will get ratings

Sure there are some games still, but I miss the big Thursday night games we used to get in the mid 2000s. This year it looks like WVU/Baylor, two November ACC games, and the Egg Bowl is all we get after week one.

When the NFL moved to network TV, the college game ratings were cut in half.
https://247sports.com/Article/ESPNs-Thur...124077746/

Quote:Most obvious among them is the looming presence of the NFL. A new player on the Thursday night block from a broadcasting perspective, the NFL’s impact on Thursday shifted considerably in 2014 when it pivoted from broadcasting its Thursday night slate on NFL Network to an eight-game simulcast on network TV. The NFL went from 61.7 percent of households in 2013 to all of them in an instant.

The ratings difference is notable. ESPN’s Thursday night game drew an average of 2.33 million viewers in 2013. The next year, going up against eight NFL games on CBS, college football’s average viewership dropped to 2.05 million on Thursday. That number fell to 1.56 in 2015 and hovered in that range (1.65 million in 2016, 1.58 million in 2017) until this year.

The NFL is a ratings juggernaut. Last year its Thursday night games drew an average viewership of 12.09 million in head-to-head weeks against college football on ESPN.

Then October comes in and TNT's NBA Thursdays average 1.7M viewers.

Right - there's no point in ESPN (out of all networks) to try to compete against the NFL head-to-head. This isn't like Lifetime providing counter-programming for a different audience that has no interest in the NFL. Instead, the ESPN audience and NFL audience are largely one and the same (and to the extent that it's different, it's that the NFL audience is actually largely than the ESPN audience). They're better off saving their better college football programming for other nights (even if Friday might be lower rated in general) than burning it in a futile attempt to compete against the NFL. ESPN will get more traction with its SportsCenter episodes that provide pregame and postgame coverage of that NFL game than going against that tide.

It just seems so strange to me - I don't think I've ever watched a single Thursday NFL game that wasn't on Thanksgiving. But I can recognize that I'm in the minority and I'll still tune in to see them spotlighting the non P5 conferences.

(09-11-2019 01:28 PM)Gamecock Wrote:  I get why the NFL does it but I don't understand why ESPN doesn't want to broadcast CFB to compete against it. If they put a decent game on it will get ratings

Sure there are some games still, but I miss the big Thursday night games we used to get in the mid 2000s. This year it looks like WVU/Baylor, two November ACC games, and the Egg Bowl is all we get after week one.

Hey man, the #FunBelt gets a lot of Thursday action in October.

(09-11-2019 02:42 PM)Michael in Raleigh Wrote:  

(09-11-2019 01:28 PM)Gamecock Wrote:  I get why the NFL does it but I don't understand why ESPN doesn't want to broadcast CFB to compete against it. If they put a decent game on it will get ratings

Sure there are some games still, but I miss the big Thursday night games we used to get in the mid 2000s. This year it looks like WVU/Baylor, two November ACC games, and the Egg Bowl is all we get after week one.

Hey man, the #FunBelt gets a lot of Thursday action in October.

I've watched a fair amount of App State the past couple of seasons because they're always on mid week. I'm just glad someone gets that TV slot and I have something to watch.