The NFL and college football typically go to great lengths not to program against each other. Save for some low-wattage Thursday night college football games on ESPN competing with Thursday Night Football on Amazon, football fans are generally able to watch every important game—college or pro—without worrying about missing another. That can all be thrown out the window this weekend when two College Football Playoff games air directly against a pair of high-octane NFL contests on Saturday. And for those without a second screen viewing option, like Pardon the Interruption‘s Tony Kornheiser, that amounts to criminal behavior. Tony Kornheiser: “This is college football attempting to spit in the eye of the NFL.” ‘Pardon the Interruption’ debates the “football on football crime” of the CFP scheduling its first round opposite an NFL Saturday: pic.twitter.com/tdMjjUt4Y9 — Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 19, 2024 Kornheiser began by rattling off the many other professional sports leagues that rearrange their schedules based on when the NFL plays games. “Golf gets out of the golf business when the NFL season starts… The NFL drills baseball. Baseball rearranges their playoff schedule to not go head-to-head with the NFL. The NFL annihilates the NBA. The NBA was doing fine on Christmas Day for a few years, somebody in the NFL office said, ‘Let’s crush them like ants,’ which they did, so now nobody even knows who’s playing in the NBA on Christmas Day. “But football on football crime, Mike. This is pretty new. There are spots in this country—as you well know having covered college football—where college football will out-rate the NFL… The point I want to make here though, is the NFL isn’t going after college football. The NFL has had this Saturday window for years. After Army-Navy, you get to play. This is college football attempting to spit in the eye of the NFL. This is a different thing.” Kornheiser brings up a great point. Although it would seem like the NFL is encroaching on college football’s real estate given that the competing games take place on Saturday, the NFL likely sees it as the other way around. When the schedules were being sorted out during the offseason, the NFL attempted to get the College Football Playoff to shift an additional first round game to Friday, making for a two-two split on Friday-Saturday rather than the one-three split this weekend. When the CFP refused to capitulate, the NFL opted to schedule two incredibly strong games for Saturday. And instead of airing those games on NFL Network, like these Saturday games traditionally do, the NFL awarded them to NBC and Fox in a clear move to dissuade the CFP from this schedule in the future. Now it can be argued whether or not the NFL should defer to the CFP schedule given Saturdays are traditionally for college football. But it’s understandable that the league wants to protect these standalone windows in a vital part of the season. The real victims of this arrangement aren’t the NFL nor the CFP, but poor fans like Kornheiser who don’t have a second screen. “I think it’s a big deal for another reason,” Kornheiser’s co-host Michael Wilbon chimed in. “I know you are the last person in America who refuses to have a second screen. Most of us, because even if you have an 80-inch screen, you can have your laptop, you have a handheld. Everybody watches more than one screen! Go to your local bar, you can watch everything! This is a bonanza. This is a big deal for that reason.” Wilbon makes another great point. We no longer live in a world where we’re limited to watching just one game. There are a plethora of options to watch multiple games at once, be that a second screen, a multiview feature, or simply going to a bar or sportsbook. The thing is, not everyone wants to watch multiple games at once. Some people prefer to focus on one game at a time. And for those viewers, the schedule isn’t ideal. Saturday’s viewership figures will likely determine a lot regarding how these games are scheduled going forward. If it’s an NFL rout, the CFP may wise up next year. But if the CFP is able to pull strong numbers for its two weakest games, while going up against the NFL, while on a cable network rather than broadcast, we might be in for more posturing next season. [Awful Announcing on X]

Tony Kornheiser says CFP and NFL scheduling competing games is 'football on football crime'

The NFL and college football typically go to great lengths not to program against each other. Save for some low-wattage Thursday night college football games on ESPN competing with Thursday Night Football on Amazon, football fans are generally able to watch every important game—college or pro—without worrying about missing another. That can all be thrown […]

The NFL and college football typically go to great lengths not to program against each other. Save for some low-wattage Thursday night college football games on ESPN competing with Thursday Night Football on Amazon, football fans are generally able to watch every important game—college or pro—without worrying about missing another.

That can all be thrown out the window this weekend when two College Football Playoff games air directly against a pair of high-octane NFL contests on Saturday. And for those without a second screen viewing option, like Pardon the Interruption‘s Tony Kornheiser, that amounts to criminal behavior.

Tony Kornheiser: “This is college football attempting to spit in the eye of the NFL.”

‘Pardon the Interruption’ debates the “football on football crime” of the CFP scheduling its first round opposite an NFL Saturday: pic.twitter.com/tdMjjUt4Y9

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 19, 2024

Kornheiser began by rattling off the many other professional sports leagues that rearrange their schedules based on when the NFL plays games.

“Golf gets out of the golf business when the NFL season starts… The NFL drills baseball. Baseball rearranges their playoff schedule to not go head-to-head with the NFL. The NFL annihilates the NBA. The NBA was doing fine on Christmas Day for a few years, somebody in the NFL office said, ‘Let’s crush them like ants,’ which they did, so now nobody even knows who’s playing in the NBA on Christmas Day.

“But football on football crime, Mike. This is pretty new. There are spots in this country—as you well know having covered college football—where college football will out-rate the NFL… The point I want to make here though, is the NFL isn’t going after college football. The NFL has had this Saturday window for years. After Army-Navy, you get to play. This is college football attempting to spit in the eye of the NFL. This is a different thing.”

Kornheiser brings up a great point. Although it would seem like the NFL is encroaching on college football’s real estate given that the competing games take place on Saturday, the NFL likely sees it as the other way around.

When the schedules were being sorted out during the offseason, the NFL attempted to get the College Football Playoff to shift an additional first round game to Friday, making for a two-two split on Friday-Saturday rather than the one-three split this weekend. When the CFP refused to capitulate, the NFL opted to schedule two incredibly strong games for Saturday. And instead of airing those games on NFL Network, like these Saturday games traditionally do, the NFL awarded them to NBC and Fox in a clear move to dissuade the CFP from this schedule in the future.

Now it can be argued whether or not the NFL should defer to the CFP schedule given Saturdays are traditionally for college football. But it’s understandable that the league wants to protect these standalone windows in a vital part of the season.

The real victims of this arrangement aren’t the NFL nor the CFP, but poor fans like Kornheiser who don’t have a second screen.

“I think it’s a big deal for another reason,” Kornheiser’s co-host Michael Wilbon chimed in. “I know you are the last person in America who refuses to have a second screen. Most of us, because even if you have an 80-inch screen, you can have your laptop, you have a handheld. Everybody watches more than one screen! Go to your local bar, you can watch everything! This is a bonanza. This is a big deal for that reason.”

Wilbon makes another great point. We no longer live in a world where we’re limited to watching just one game. There are a plethora of options to watch multiple games at once, be that a second screen, a multiview feature, or simply going to a bar or sportsbook.

The thing is, not everyone wants to watch multiple games at once. Some people prefer to focus on one game at a time. And for those viewers, the schedule isn’t ideal.

Saturday’s viewership figures will likely determine a lot regarding how these games are scheduled going forward. If it’s an NFL rout, the CFP may wise up next year. But if the CFP is able to pull strong numbers for its two weakest games, while going up against the NFL, while on a cable network rather than broadcast, we might be in for more posturing next season.

[Awful Announcing on X]