I love it when sports gets it right, and nothing feels more right than a holiday weekend and four games of playoff football spread over two glorious I-will-never-turn-away-from-the-TV-except-during-those-hideous-Joyful-Noise-promos days. Honestly, what else would you rather be doing this weekend? Go skiing? Too cold. Engage in meaningful non-sports conversations and work on your interpersonal skills? I shudder at the thought.
This weekend is sports viewing at its finest, and that’s not even factoring in the Tebow effect, which is expected to yield all-time record ratings for CBS on Saturday night. Given this year’s slate of divisional playoff games and storylines, this is an absolute bonanza of a weekend for TV executives. And let’s face it, if you invested more than eight minutes of your life watching this week’s BCS Championship game (look, kids, another field goal attempt!), you deserve a make-good from the football gods.
We take for granted that the biggest sports events are entertainment gold and are immune to things like, you know, administrators eschewing a playoff system in favor of cherry-picking teams for a seemingly arbitrary “championship game.” But Monday night may have been a tipping point. The sports fan spoke – and more importantly – the sports fan did not watch, resulting in the second-lowest TV rating in the 14-year history of BCS title games, and also resulting in a conundrum for marketers. When fans lose faith in the system, everyone loses.
Professional sports and purity may be mutually exclusive, but there’s something about this weekend that makes you feel giddy. It’s championship-caliber football without the hyperbole and hyper-analysis of the Super Bowl. It feels like the games speak for themselves. And it just feels right.
What are you most excited to see this weekend?
