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There’s a war coming.
And it’s not one that either side is likely to win.
The college football schedule is ever-changing, and the NFL is reportedly not happy about it.
John Ourand of Puck News reports that the NFL is upset with the growing College Football Playoff which is encroaching on late-season Saturday NFL games.
“Those opening-round games are scheduled for December 20 and 21 this year. The latter date, as you surely know from consulting your Farmer’s Almanac, falls on a Saturday—and the NFL historically schedules games on that day, which is set up to be Week 16 this year. (Last season, the NFL scheduled two games on its Week 16 Saturday: the Bengals-Steelers on NBC and the Bills-Chargers on Peacock.),” Ourand writes. It’s the same deal the following year, too: The C.F.P.’s opening-round games are on Friday and Saturday.
“Multiple sources have told me that executives in the league office were not happy about C.F.P.’s chutzpah in scheduling games that day, and they have been left scratching their heads as to why C.F.P. would encroach on their veritable turf.”
NFL Executives Are Ready To Take On College Football Schedule Makers
Congress banned the NFL from playing Saturday games earlier in the season. But the league typically expands its schedule late in the season when it is not competing with college football.
Now that’s no longer the case.
Are we at DEFCON 1? Not yet, says Ourand. But NFL executives aren’t happy. And they aren’t backing down either.
“Is this a matter of grave consequence, on the level with munitions funding for Ukraine or climate change? That, it is not,” he said. “But NFL executives are aggrieved because C.F.P. officials met with them as they worked through the schedule, and simply did not take heed of the league’s desire to schedule games on that Saturday.
…Executives who have done business with the NFL fully expect the league to dig in and schedule its own games on that Saturday.”
You don’t mess with the NFL. The league has shown time and again that it rules the TV world. But college football apparently didn’t get the memo. And it means that somebody, at some point, is going to end up unhappy.