2016 was an amazing year for sports. The Cubs won the World Series for the first time in over 100 years. The Penguins are Stanley Cup Champions after a wild Stanley Cup playoff. John Scott became the second player in the NHL to retire as the reigning All Star Game MVP. Taylor Hall is in the Metro. The Warriors blew a 3-1 lead.
Then there’s college football. Despite an amazing finish, the setup was much of the same. The Alabama Crimson Tide had won 4 out of the last 8 national championships and had made an appearance in every College Football Playoff since its inception in 2014. Clemson slayed the dragon this year and the world has rejoiced.
The 2015 Sugar Bowl, the first national championship game in the playoff era earned ratings of 15.3. that number dropped to 9.9 in 2016. The difference? 2015 was a matchup between 2nd- ranked Oregon and 4th ranked Ohio State, with the underdog winning decisively. 2016 pitted the two top teams, Alabama and Clemson against each other after Alabama blew out Michigan State 38-0 and Clemson beat Oklahoma 37-17. 2017 was a rematch of 2016, with both Alabama and Clemson blowing out their semifinal opponents. That’s boring. What made up for it was the national championship game, a nail biter that came down to a last second touchdown. The turnaround that the game had did not help for ratings at all though, with the overnight rating being the lowest for a national championship game in five years.
This is an issue that can be analyzed in every possible way. Some can argue that it was because the game ran so late, past midnight on the east coast, while others can say that the rematch was not exciting considering everyone expected a repeat of last year. It is certainly a combination of both.
I don’t blame Alabama for being so good. They can’t help it that they’re so popular. But in order for sports to be successful, there needs to be an element of excitement. Viewers need to wonder what is going to happen. If Alabama keeps winning, eventually only Alabama fans, and those who love to hate Alabama will watch because everyone will know what is going to happen. Simply put, no one wants to watch Alabama anymore.
March Madness is by far the most popular NCAA event in regards to viewership because anything can happen. It has become an event where even the president will fill out a bracket and provides everyone with the chance to boast to their friends and coworkers that they picked the Florida Gulf Coasts or Lehighs of that year to beat the Georgetowns or Dukes. In football, you don’t make those bets because you know Alabama or one of the other Blue Bloods is going to win. In a world where people wonder more if Alabama could beat the Browns (they can’t) than if it could beat Clemson (joke's on them, Clemson won), the fascination around the National Championship begins to wane.
While it’s amazing that Alabama has been so successful (I wish my Nittany Lions were them), this kind of dynasty makes the game unsustainable. Yes, people will still tune in because it’s Alabama and Alabama has a huge following but without the excitement of the underdog or the mystery of what’s going to happen, casual viewers will become less interested.
This is not to say that Alabama should be penalized for their success, or should the College Football Playoff block them out when they are one of the top four teams of the nation. I am simply stating that while it is amazing that Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide have made this team into a powerhouse to end all powerhouses, their constant dominance may be detrimental to the growth of the sport.
Clemson is America’s team and I give them all the credit in the world for winning the game when it seemed like everything was going Alabama’s way. They’re a team that will be remembered for a long time because they were the one to defeat the all-powerful Crimson Tide. Had Alabama won, the National Championship would just be another game for the SEC fans to pump their chests about.
