(02-07-2015 03:06 AM)stever20 Wrote: yeah and I'm sorry but most of the country isn't at work at 5pm et on NYE. Not a chance.
Um... yes they are? December 31 (if a weekday) is a workday for the vast majority of people. Most jobs don't get it off as a holiday. People in the Eastern Time Zone are likely to be off work and headed home, and people in other time zones are likely to still be at work.
Yes, I realize that not everyone works an 8-5 M-F job, but a much higher percentage of people are going to be at work at 5 Eastern/4 Central/3 Mountain/2 Pacific on a Thursday than on a Saturday. It's ratings suicide to put a major college football game on during regular work hours. Yes, many people will leave work early that day, but a lot of people won't be able to. It baffles me why people are so
against what seems like an obvious move. Who cares if it's ESPN, Fox, CBS, or whatever? Don't you want to be able to watch it? Don't you want as many people as possible to be able to watch it? Yes, I understand that even if they showed it at 4 AM some people would be working, but clearly a prime-time Saturday night game is going to get a lot more attention that a game that starts while half the country is still at work on a Thursday.
The NCAA Tournament comparison isn't very good, because it has 67 games and it would be too hard to spread them out outside of working hours. Even so, only games from the Round of 64 are on during work hours. The Round of 32, Elite Eight, and Final Four games are played on the weekend, and the play-in, Sweet 16, and Championship are played at night.