NYE Marathon

[Hall2012]

I'd like to see the NYE marathon come back, but in the ratings game you've gotta be smart about who you compete with. And football is king in the US. I'd certainly like to see the NYE Marathon come back on the years with no CFP games and honestly, I'd keep it around even when they do have the CFP games. Even without college football to compete against, the marathon is never going to be THE NYE event to watch. But the fans who do care about it are going to tune in regardless.

A similar case is with the NHL's Winter Classic. They chose to move it off their traditional New Year's Day timeslot this year because that happens to fall on the final Sunday of the NFL regular season and they didn't want to compete with that. This is by far their biggest regular season draw every year and it would certainly take a hit- so good decision to move IMO. And people will still have the day it falls on (Jan 2nd) off from work for the New Years holiday.

It's a little different for the Big East in that this event is something fun for Big East fans, but likely won't even be the league's biggest event. The way the league is shaping up, there'll likely be some late season top 25 matchups that will easily out draw the marathon regardless of competing with football or not. I say keep to tradition for the fans because the difference isn't going to be that big.

It's not really a huge event just a kick off to league play. Everyone starting on the same day and maybe a few interesting match ups.

Exactly. That's why I think they should just say screw it and keep the games on New Years Eve regardless of what CFP or anyone else does. For the NHL, it makes sense to move the Winter Classic to avoid competing with the NFL. For the Big East/Fox Sports, there's really no benefit to moving or skipping the NYE marathon.

[stever20]

The ratings told a pretty interesting story though with the Marathons.

Marathon on 12/31/14- averaged 98,600 viewers. Top game had only 114k viewers
Marathon on 1/2/16- averaged 157,200 viewers. WORST game had 91k viewers. Top game had 219k viewers

so to say there's no benefit to move or skip the marathon is a joke. 114k viewers is below average for FS1 even.

And to even think for a second that the Marathon could compete with the NFL is pretty much asinine.

And the bottom line quite frankly, the Big East doesn't need a gimmick.

[milksteak]

The ratings told a pretty interesting story though with the Marathons.

Marathon on 12/31/14- averaged 98,600 viewers. Top game had only 114k viewers
Marathon on 1/2/16- averaged 157,200 viewers. WORST game had 91k viewers. Top game had 219k viewers

so to say there's no benefit to move or skip the marathon is a joke. 114k viewers is below average for FS1 even.

And to even think for a second that the Marathon could compete with the NFL is pretty much asinine.

And the bottom line quite frankly, the Big East doesn't need a gimmick.

FS1 was still brand new in 2014, everyone thought the "New" Big East was doomed, our league sucked overall in 2014 and it was a brand new tradition.

Blaming it entirely on the date is not fair.

[stever20]

The ratings told a pretty interesting story though with the Marathons.

Marathon on 12/31/14- averaged 98,600 viewers. Top game had only 114k viewers
Marathon on 1/2/16- averaged 157,200 viewers. WORST game had 91k viewers. Top game had 219k viewers

so to say there's no benefit to move or skip the marathon is a joke. 114k viewers is below average for FS1 even.

And to even think for a second that the Marathon could compete with the NFL is pretty much asinine.

And the bottom line quite frankly, the Big East doesn't need a gimmick.

FS1 was still brand new in 2014, everyone thought the "New" Big East was doomed, our league sucked overall in 2014 and it was a brand new tradition.

Blaming it entirely on the date is not fair.

2014 was the 2nd season. The 1st marathon on 12/31/13 averaged 83k viewers. That one got killed by the Seton Hall/Providence and DePaul/Georgetown games that drew only 30 and 44k respectively. They actually had the better individual game(Nova/Butler drew 143k viewers) than in 2014.

[DudeAnon]

They key (as always) is being ranked. When you are ranked your game times are broadcast on all the networks. I believe we had 4 teams ranked during the marathon last year (and very high as well).

[stever20]

They key (as always) is being ranked. When you are ranked your game times are broadcast on all the networks. I believe we had 4 teams ranked during the marathon last year (and very high as well).

And 2 years ago how many teams did we have ranked? Just looked- 3.

And the worst game last year was almost better than the average 2 years ago. Yeah ranked matters some, but also frankly it not being on NYE matters a whole lot as well.

And I would submit the number of viewers for the Georgetown/Marquette game(both teams unranked). 171K. Better than any NYE game in the Marathons.

Compare that to NYE '15 even where Villanova and Xavier played each other. That game got only 113k viewers.

[MUPanther]

If you going to do a marathon it can't be on NYE. Terrible day for ratings. Do it the first Saturday in January to hype something up.

[stever20]

If you going to do a marathon it can't be on NYE. Terrible day for ratings. Do it the first Saturday in January to hype something up.

that's a tough day because of the NFL playoffs some years. And the Saturday before New Years is out because that's the SF day.

I really don't think you have to do a marathon. It would be fine to me to have like this year- 1 game on Tue 27, 2 games on Wed 28, 2 games on Thu 29. There's nothing wrong with doing that at all.