Why the NFL Loves the CFP
More games will highlight future stars who will play on Sundays
Let’s get one thing straight about the National Football League. It is not a sports league.
It is an entertainment studio.
Yes, its main product is live sporting events, but the NFL also produces, or its product is the content for, pregame and post-game shows, weekly highlight shows (CW’s “Inside the NFL”), HBO’s “Hard Knocks” reality show, betting and fantasy sports shows, and fodder for network television shows, cable networks, streaming sites, sports radio, podcasts and more.
The NFL doesn’t need the games, as much as it needs the eyeballs on those games.
It’s why the NFL’s popularity among audiences has grown consistently each and every year this century, despite it’s two greatest franchises being located in Boston (not New York, the media capital of the world), and Kansas City, a spot in the middle of the United States map that no one will ever confuse as a great metropolis or vacation destination.
So how does the NFL manage to grow its audience each year?
Is it because people love rooting for Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, or Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid? Not necessarily.
Much like the New England Patriots during its dynasty the first decade or so of the 2000s, the Kansas City Chiefs have become, if not fan favorites, than the sworn enemy to the rest of the league, and larger viewing public, these past seven seasons.
Why? Because of characters!
At a certain point, after rooting for the plucky sixth-round draft pick out of Michigan, viewers came to despise Brady and Patriots, much like the nation now laments every call the Chiefs and Mahomes get the benefit of and the luxury box reaction shots of Taylor Swift after every Travis Kelce playoff catch.
The NFL referees do a better job of protecting Mahomes than the United States Secret Service does of protecting Donald Trump. (And sadly, that’s not a joke.)
Characters matter.
People love Josh Allan, the Clark Kent-Superman quarterback of the underdog Buffalo Bills. They’re captured by the smooth play and coolness of Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels.
And who doesn’t love Saquon Barkley, a perfectly good guy kicked to the curb by his old team (the New York Giants), only to prove not only to them but the rest of the league, exactly what he had left in the tank, which was a near record-setting season for yards by a running back for his new team, the Philadelphia Eagles.
Chances are, fans who are not even remotely interested in football probably know at least one, if not a few of those names.
Enter, the College Football Playoff.
The CFP, expanded to 12 teams for the first time this season, turned into a casting couch for not only the next NFL season, but the season after that, and after that, and after that.
The expanded playoff caused fans, casual and diehards, to learn more about teams from Boise St., Arizona St., Indiana, and SMU, in addition to the typical blue blood schools from the power conferences like Ohio State, Notre Dame, Penn State, Texas, Clemson, Oregon and Georgia.
That meant at least one extra game, with a dedicated national audience, for fans to focus on not only the team, but the players and coaches.
For teams like eventual National Champion Ohio State and runner-up Notre Dame, it added four games for each team, and for audiences to learn about Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day, quarterback Will Howard, running backs Treveyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins, freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, and defenders like linebacker Cody Simon, safeties Sonny Styles and Caleb Downs, and linebacker Jack Sawyer, whose sack, strip and score of Texas’ Quinn Ewers in the CFP emifinals game sealed the Buckeyes’ spot in the final game.
On just one team I’ve named seven players who will likely play on Sundays, and it’s baffling to me why Day’s name is not at least mentioned as a possible coaching candidate in NFL circles. He’d be an improvement over anyone the New York Jets have hired in the last 20 years.
And that is all from just one of the 12 teams.
That doesn’t include other stars from the CFP, such as Heisman Trophy candidate Ashton Jeanty, a running back from Boise State, or Arizona State running back Cam Skattebo. Texas, while losing Ewers, will be returning quarterback Arch Manning, whose uncles, Peyton and Eli, you may have heard of before.
Georgia’s quarterback for the first half of its CFP game against Notre Dame, Carson Beck, just transferred to Miami, so Bulldog and SEC fans will get to know second half quarterback, Gunner Stockton, that much better.
Penn State will be returning quarterback Drew Allar and the dynamic duo of running backs, Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen, in an attempt to capture the school’s first national championship since 19861.
But in the meantime, I’m sure fans are now interested in seeing where likely first round picks, tight end Tyler Warren and defensive end Abdul Carter, end up.
The college game allows players to develop. The CFP, along with the conference championship games and traditional rivalry games, allow players to become stars, even before they cross that draft stage to man-hug Roger Goodell and sign-away their lives to one of the league’s 32 billionaires.
It’s what the NBA and Major League Baseball are lacking.
Going into this year’s NCAA basketball tournament, and the month that is March Madness, I’m guessing 99 percent of Americans can’t name more than two college basketball stars. By the first week in April, you may know five. Total.
Half of those players may be from Cinderella teams, players who hit a game-winning three to catapult their team past a top seed, but with little to no chance of ever stepping onto an NBA court.
It wasn’t always like that, however.
In the 1980s, the NCAA tournament was dominated by players like Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullen, Michael Jordan, James Worthy, Charles Barkley, Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon. All of them played multiple seasons in college. Jordan and Ewing both won national championships and returned the following season!
By the time they were entering the NBA, basketball fans and a great portion of the viewing public, not only knew who they were, but more importantly, wanted to watch them play.
Currently, the NBA’s most recent All-NBA first team for the 2023-24 season consisted of:
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Luka Dončić
Shai Gilgeou-Alexander
Nikola Jokić
Jayson Tatum
Do you know where any of them they played their college ball?
It’s actually a trick question.
Giannis is a Greek-Nigerian player who began his career playing in Greece. Luka is a Slovenian who began his professional career playing in Madrid, Spain. Jokić is a Serbian born player who began playing professionally in his home country, while Gilgeou-Alexander is Canadian-born, but did play one season at Kentucky.
Tatum is the only American-born player on the first team, and like Gilgeou-Alexander, only played one season of college ball, at Duke, where his Blue Devils, the No. 2 seed, were bounced by South Carolina in the second round.
The two games in the tournament that he did play, you might have missed him.
The five best players in the NBA, and it’s likely 99 percent of basketball fans, let alone the viewing public, never saw them play before they put on an NBA uniform.
And NBA Commission Adam Silver is wondering why NBA television ratings are tanking?
There’s no characters!
Currently, the best part about watching the NBA is “Inside the NBA,” TNT’s halftime and post-game studio show hosted by Ernie Johnson (since 1990), Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal.
Characters. Each and every one of them.
So while there may be debate about the CFP — too many teams, not enough teams, home field advantage, bye weeks — just know it was an overwhelming success.
Maybe not for the NCAA, or certain college institutions (looking at you Alabama), or head coaches dealing with the transfer portal while simultaneously trying to game plan for a playoff game, it did make the NFL’s job a whole lot easier.
And it’s wallet, a whole lot fatter.
It made characters.
The undefeated 1994 team deserved to be recognized as at least co-national champions, along with Nebraska. I’ll go to my grave saying that.