2 Steps to Fix the College Football Playoff’s Scheduling Problem

There’s simply no excuse for the awful scheduling of the New Year’s Six bowls and the college football playoff.

From year one, it was painfully obvious to everyone involved that college football fans want to watch the biggest games on New Year’s Day. In the just-concluded decade of the 2010s, the top 10 list of college football telecasts includes four semifinal games, from 2014 and 2017 when the semifinals fell on the first of the year. Each game surpassed multiple actual title games.

This does not make sense. No other sport on the planet sees more viewers for its semifinals than its finals. But college football has never made sense.

When the four-team playoff launched, there was doom and gloom about the new format. Six years later, the format has worked to perfection. There have been no glaring omissions from the playoffs, despite some minor debates. The title game every year has crowned a legit champion. Split national titles are a thing of the past.

Still, the New Year’s Six scheduling is ruining bowl season. In 2015 and 2016, the insane decision to play semifinal games on New Year’s Eve backfired spectacularly. In 2018 and 2019, the decision to play the semifinal games on the Saturday before New Year’s Day improved things slightly, but devalued just about…