Good morning, all and Happy New Year!
As I write my first newsletter of 2024, college football is preparing for the playoff semifinals. The Rose Bowl pits Michigan vs. Alabama, followed by the Sugar Bowl between Texas and Washington. The winners battle for the national championship next Monday night. Next season, the playoff field will expand from four to 12.
Leading up to Monday night’s semifinals were numerous bowl games, motivating many to opine why so many? By the way, I am not among them complaining about the numerous games. No one is forcing me to watch a bowl game, and no one should be forcing you. And I do watch some of them.
There are two main reasons - others exist, as well - we are flooded with bowl games: ratings and content. Programmers such as ESPN need fresh content to justify their ever-increasing monthly charges to subscribers. Ratings, meanwhile, are solid. Even the most obscure bowl game garners millions of viewers. Take last Wednesday’s Duke’s Mayo Bowl between West Virginia and North Carolina. ESPN snagged 3.84 million viewers for that telecast. Close behind was the Holiday Bowl between Louisville and USC. FOX averaged 3.51 million viewers for that contest.
Those are impressive numbers. Friday night’s Cotton Bowl between Ohio St. and Missouri, telecast on ESPN, drew an audience of 9.6 million viewers. The Cotton Bowl ratings rivaled World Series numbers. Those other ratings compared to baseball playoff games. Advertisers love to place their products in front of that many eyeballs.
So why all the bowl games? There are your answers. If you are put off by the number of games, understand millions are not.
All Belichick, all the time
Bill Belichick has one year remaining on his contract, as speculation mounts whether New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft will fire him, after the team’s final game of the season on Sunday against the Jets. For weeks now, as the Patriots’ losses increased (They have a 4-12 record), the drumbeat has been growing for Belichick’s dismissal. Each day in the Boston media, for example, there are stories wondering about Belichick’s future. Clickbait stories quote unnamed sources, as saying he is out. Who knows?
Depending on what you read, Belichick will earn $25 million in the final year of his contract. Does Kraft let him go and pay him the dough or does he hope another team wants him and uses that as excuse to trade him in exchange for a draft choice or another form of compensation?
I’m not prescient enough to write what is going to happen but my hunch is, if Kraft keeps Belichick around to fulfill the contract, we are going to be subject to the same barrage of speculative stories, unless the Patriots play better football. Next Monday, the day after the NFL’s regular season ends, should be a doozy. Known as “Black Monday,” 10 coaches are predicted to get pink slips. For the next week, the speculation will persist whether Belichick will be among them.
Best team money can buy
When the New York Yankees shelled out millions for free agents, they were disparaged as the “Evil Empire” or labeled “The Best Team Money Can Buy,” when they won a championship. Isn’t it interesting how muted the criticism is for the Dodgers, who are spending billions on free agents?
The Dodgers have not won a World Series in a 162-game season since 1988. Spending billions to make billions in revenue may work, but they are going to need multiple World Series titles in light of their financial outlay to justify this approach, in my humble opinion. Putting it another way, the Dodgers will be a very easy club to root against, and that is a category once reserved for only the Yankees.
That is it for this week’s newsletter. I hope you had a terrific holiday and please feel free to share the newsletter with others.
SPORTSCASTER DAN