Faced with a College Football Playoff tripleheader, the NFL is calling up broadcast network reinforcements for Saturday, December 21.
NBC Sports announced Monday that it has acquired an extra NFL regular season game to air in the afternoon on Saturday, December 21, a day that will feature three College Football Playoff first round games. Coverage will air on the NBC broadcast network, Peacock and Telemundo. Later in the day, Fox Sports executive Michael Mulvihill said the FOX broadcast network will also carry an NFL game on that date, presumably another afternoon contest leading into a USC-UConn women’s college basketball game.
The Week 16 Saturday games have traditionally aired on NFL Network, though last year’s matchups aired on NBC and Peacock due to Christmas-related scheduling adjustments.
The NFL had communicated to the CFP its desire that only two playoff games be scheduled for that date, but the league was rebuffed.
Given the sharply lower audience for NFL games on NFL Network as compared to the primary broadcast partners, it is highly likely that any CFP games would have outdrawn the NFL in a prospective head-to-head. Four years ago when college football conference championship games were pushed back to the third week in December, the ACC and SEC Championship games easily outdrew NFL games on NFL Network. By airing the game on NBC, the NFL has a much better chance of winning the ratings matchup.
It should be noted that the December 21 matchups figure to include higher-profile teams than usual. The NFL teams playing on Christmas this year — which falls on a Wednesday, a day of the week when NFL games are rarely played — will have played their previous game on that Saturday. Assuming the NFL will schedule its top-tier teams for its Christmas doubleheader, the December 21 games figure to feature some of the biggest draws in the league.
The full NFL schedule is to be released Wednesday.
