Jason Whitlock drops a one-word reaction to a 12% drop in the CFP national championship viewership

The Ohio State Buckeyes faced the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the College Football National Championship game on Monday evening. Despite a late comeback from the Fighting Irish, the Buckeyes convincingly won the game and became the national champions.

On Thursday, the television figures were released for the game. It shows that the viewing figures were down 12% from last year.

College football analyst Jason Whitlock responded to these figures with a one-word response on X (formally Twitter).

"Interesting."

The viewing figures reveal that 22.1 million people watched the game between Ohio State and Notre Dame. However, 25 million people tuned in to see the Michigan Wolverines face the Washington Huskies last year, in what was the last game for Jim Harbaugh as Wolverines coach before his move to the NFL.

There are potentially many reasons for this decline in viewership. One potential reason surrounds the expanded playoff format. The College Football Playoff used to be three games. Two semi-finals played around New year's featuring the four best teams, where the winners face each other in the national championship game the following week.

This format brought people in, mostly due to the simple format and the notion that these are the best teams.

Now, with the expanded format, the playoffs begin in late December and take a month to complete. There are almost too many games, and the earlier stages of the playoffs this year were games that were blowouts. Many predicted that the national championship would have been a blowout as well, which could explain why people didn't tune in.

Additionally, the wider sports weekend could be a factor. In the last two weeks, fans have seen two college football semi finals, six NFL Wild card games, four NFL divisional round games, and a national championship. While playoff football is exciting, by the time the national championship was played on Monday evening, the fans had already seen too much football and wanted something different.

The National Championship Game was played on the wrong day

However, the fact that the game was played on Monday could also be a key reason why viewing figures were down. While the game is normally on a Monday (something that many fans do not like, thinking it should be on a Saturday), January 20 was already a big day in the United States.

Hours before the game was played, Donald Trump's inauguration as US President took place. For some, this event and the subsequent hours that followed with Trump publicly signing numerous executive orders would have been more important than a football game.

Additionally, with it being a weekday, those on the west coast would have still been at work when the game started. This would have reduced the number of viewers.

Finally, a snowstorm was approaching the Southeast United States when the game was happening. This area is usually a college football stronghold, but there is a possibility that people's minds were focused on making sure they were prepared for a very dangerous (and unusual) situation.