Is America finally experiencing football fatigue?

quote:

---

While more than a decade’s worth of cord-cutting has resulted in an inevitable decline in traditional television ratings, there’s seemingly always been one exception to that trend: football.

Fewer and fewer people might be watching TV these days, but all indications are that more and more people are watching football.

Or, at least they were.

While it seems like every press release regarding football ratings in recent memory has touted some version of a new record high, that hasn’t been the case in recent weeks. Ratings for the NFL’s Wild Card Round were largely down year over year, while Sunday’s two Divisional Round matchups posted a four-year low. And although the College Football Playoff’s ratings dip in the semifinals round could easily be explained by the games no longer being played on the New Year’s Day holiday, the same couldn’t be said for the sport’s championship game.

---

quote:

---

Two Midwest teams could only reach a limited audience. ESPN didn’t do a good enough job marketing the game. Ohio State’s 31-7 lead led to an early mass exodus of viewers. It was Inauguration Day, as well as a holiday. And why is college football’s national championship still being played on a Monday night?

Again, all of these factors likely played at least some role in Monday night’s rating. But they also underscore what may very well be the biggest reason why Ohio State vs. Notre Dame didn’t draw better: We simply have too much football.

Not only did the expanded College Football Playoff mean moving from three games to 11, but it also meant stretching the format from two weeks to more than four. College football held the bulk of its conference championship games on Dec. 7 and played its national championship game on Jan. 20, creating a more than six-week stretch in which its fanbase is expected to invest in its postseason without even factoring the sport’s other bowl games and the busyness of the holiday season.

That’s also without considering the realities of the NFL, whose own playoff now overlaps with college football’s. Monday night’s championship wasn’t just the end of a six-week stretch of postseason play for college football, but it also followed the two days comprising the NFL’s Divisional Round and came a week after both sports combined for five consecutive days of playoff football.

---

quote:

---

Even for the most diehard of fans, football fatigue by this point isn’t just understandable — it’s be expected. And while it’s very well possible (if not likely) that the NFL will return to form in its conference championship games and next month’s Super Bowl, the fact that the divisional round already saw a dip is telling.

So what’s the solution?

---