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Friday night is historically the worst TV night for ratings. I’m not surprised that they get worse ratings than any of the Saturday P5 championship games whenever they play on Friday. They should push to get their game on Saturday, even if it’s at 3:30 or 4 pm ET head to head with the SEC title game.That’s because no one ever watches the PAC-12. I mean hell, their conference championship had 3.5m less viewers than the Big 12 and that was still the most ever watched Pac12 championship game ever.
Also lol at comparing it to two games involving two of the largest fan bases in College Football in ND and Texas.
I get this is a foreign concept to you, as a ND fan who watched his favorite P5-level team lose to 2 mid-majors in consecutive years, but no playoff caliber team wants to end the season on a loss to a G5 team. It’s embarrassing for their resume the following year. And if you think the previous year has zero bearing, you’re naive.
Or try to shoehorn their way into Saturday night since the Big 10 and ACC title games are often underwhelming affairs.
Of course no one wants to end on a loss, but are they putting in the same month-long level of focused preparation and playing with the same emotion as they would if the team on the other sideline were Alabama or Ohio State or LSU or Clemson? I find it highly unlikely.
As for impacting the following year, I don’t think it’ll have much impact on USC’s ranking after they play their first meaningful opponent.
After Oklahoma lost to Boise State to end 2006, the Sooners started #8 in 2007, quickly rose to #3 in September after trouncing creampuffs and unranked Miami, and were in the top 10 all year despite upset losses at Colorado and Texas Tech. And they were back to #3 going into bowl season.
After Alabama slept through a Sugar Bowl loss to then-independent Utah to end 2008, the 2009 Alabama team turned around and won the national title.
And most recently, UGA was questioned on here and elsewhere after barely beating UC in the 2020 Peach Bowl, and they responded by dominantly winning the national title the next season.
The other teams who lost to the Group of Five champ, like Arizona, a declining FSU, and Auburn were never really in the national title mix the following year regardless.
So I don’t see how the Tulane result in any way hurts USC’s resume next year.
It’s true, it’s true. Trust me …