The first year of the College Football Playoff (CFP) has resulted in higher television rankings, but has also seen a dip in fan attendance at the slate of bowl games.
While most bowl games have not changed, the Rose and Sugar Bowl games were turned into the CFP's semifinal games ahead of the National Championship game in Dallas. In future seasons, the "New Years Six" (Rose, Sugar, Orange, Cotton, Fiesta and Peach) bowls will bid to host semifinal games.
According to ESPN, the network's telecast brought in an average 3.4 rating, up from 3.2 last year.
"That was a pleasant surprise," Burke Magnus, the network's senior vice president of programming and acquisitions, told ESPN. "We're cautiously optimistic about Monday, but obviously the new format has resonated with fans."
But the average attendance at all 38 bowl games was 43,285, down nine percent from last season, the last of the Bowl Championship System system. Despite four new bowl games making their debut, the average attendance for the 34 returning games was still down about three percent.
"It's not just a bowl problem," Wright Waters, the executive director for the Football Bowl Association, told ESPN. "It's a college football problem that we've got to deal with."
Like the NFL, attendance has been in decline in college football in the regular season as well as the postseason.
"We've probably gotten comfortable with crowds coming from schools," Waters said. "Just as schools are having trouble with their attendance, we're going to have to get more active locally."
With the new CFP system came changes to the slate of bowl games and some of the conference affiliations have been altered or done away with. For example, the Peach Bowl brought in 65,706 fans, but ended a strong of 17 consecutive sellouts.
"Obviously it was a 12:30 game where in the past we were in prime time," Peach Bowl CEO and president Gary Stokan told ESPN. "We're going to study everything. I don't know if that had anything to do with it. We're studying everything because everything has changed for us... But how do you complain with [65,706]?"
