CFB analyst underlines main reason for Notre Dame-Penn State semifinal attracting 10 million fewer viewers than Michigan-Alabama

Despite the entertainment it produced, Notre Dame's win in last Thursday's College Football Playoff seminal at the Orange Bowl didn't draw as much attention as that stage had the year prior. Alabama and Michigan played in last year's semifinal at the Rose Bowl, which was also an all-time classic college football game.

Blain Crain laid out the numbers difference for the two contests, showing that not all matchups between blue bloods are worth the same amount of viewership.

"Only 17.8 million people tuned in to watch Penn State-Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff semifinal, a sharp drop from the 27.8 million who watched Alabama-Michigan in last year's semifinal," Blain Crain wrote Sunday on X. "That's a huge decline, especially for such a close game. What could explain this?" (0:00)

Jake Crain had an answer, one that involved an interesting metaphor:

"It's like opening up an all-you-can-eat buffet and not letting fat people in," he said Tuesday on "Crain & Company." "You're not gonna make as much money as you would if you let the fat people in."

In this case, the buffet would be the College Football Playoff and its target demographic, the fans of college football fans in a certain region of America. Jake Crain clarified that he wasn't making a joke about the weights of any of the fans in the southeast.

"I think this is blatantly obvious," Jake Crain said. "The reason the viewership was down is because the region that cares the most about college football — we can have an argument about who's the best teams, but we can't about which region cares most about college football — the southeast, wasn't represented."

"Now, Texas is in the south. They're not in the southeast. If you've ever been to Texas, you know it's in the south — it's hot as hell out there. ... Therefore, there is gonna be a drop."

Why does the southeast outweigh Notre Dame?

Jake Crain also had his thoughts on the College Football Playoff's selection process and how it directly affects television ratings. While Notre Dame is one of the largest brands in the sport, the Southeastern Conference has reigned supreme for much of the 21st century.

"I was shocked that SMU got in over Alabama," Jake Crain said. "Because it's a business. If you wanna make haircuts, you wanna cut people with hair. That's how it works. ... It's the same thing with college football."

Alabama would have been on the same side of the bracket as Notre Dame. The Crimson Tide would've visited Penn State in the opening round, which would not have been a guaranteed win, especially with how hard the Nittany Lions played against the Fighting Irish.