Pros and cons of the College Football Playoff schedule

With the release of the 2024-2025 College Football Playoff Schedule, fans can now plan for their months of December and January which will include four weekends of post-season play in college football this year. This is the first year of the 12-team expanded playoff in college football, which has seen a playoff of only four teams over the last decade.

With change however comes both criticism and fanfare, and the College Football Playoff is definitely not excluded from either of those. In this article, I point out some of the biggest pros and cons of the college football playoff schedule and what fans should expect.

What are the biggest cons with the College Football Playoff schedule?

The most glaring has to be the fact that the National Championship is on a Monday…again. Yes, that’s right- the 2024 National Championship will be played on Monday, January 20th at 7:30 PM Eastern Standard Time.

Many were anticipating a change from this considering Monday is during the work week for many. And not just that, but the game at its earliest will begin at 7:30 in the evening. And let us be honest- it will probably be more like 8:30 PM EST with all of the inevitable pregame build up. This will have folks staying up way past their bedtime just to see who is crowned national champion.

ESPN also announced recently that it will be sublicensing two of its first round quarterfinal matchups to TNT in a five-year agreement with TNT Sports.

Considering that all TNT has been known for in the sports arena is March Madness, the NBA and Charles Barkley, this is a definite negative from the production all the way down to the broadcast team as to how the viewing experience will be for fans. All other games will be aired either on ABC or ESPN.

What are the biggest pros with the College Football Playoff schedule?

One of the biggest pros is that this is the inaugural season of a 12-team playoff, and that is just it. In years past with only four teams, there has only been three total playoff games. And before that in the BCS era, there was only one which was the National Championship.

With the 12-team format, this allows for build up and college football fans to have more than a weekend of festivities and watching highly anticipated matchups.