MLS Cup Should Be The Day Following Thanksgiving

There were 16 FBS college football games on Nov 28th. 2014 including:
Nebraska - Iowa
UCF - South Florida
Houston - SMU
Arkansas - Missouri
Arizona State - Arizona
Stanford - UCLA
Colorado State - Air Force
Virginia - Virginia Tech

There were also 12 NBA games, 11 NHL games, and 64 division 1-A college men's basketball games.

But other than those 103 games yeah, its an empty day in American sports.

 

"Division 1-A" and "Division 1-AA" were football terms that now are "FBS" for Football Bowl Subdivision and "FCS" for Football Championship Subdivision. For all sports other than football, there never was a "Division 1-A." It's just Division I.

 

Most sites have dropped the kickoff times now that the games are complete, here's the best list I could find. 11 of the 16 games are on it:

• 11:00 am – Northern Illinois at Western Michigan (ESPNU)
• 12:00 – Houston at SMU (CBS Sports)
• 12:00 – Nebraska at Iowa (ABC)
• 12:00 – Western Kentucky at Marshall (Fox Sports 1)
• 12:00 – UCF at South Florida (ESPN2)
• 2:30 – Arkansas at Missouri (CBS)
• 3:30 – Arizona State at Arizona (Fox)
• 3:30 – Colorado State at Air Force (CBS Sports)
• 3:30 – Stanford at UCLA (ABC)
• 8:00 – Virginia at Virginia Tech (ESPN)
• 8:30 – East Carolina at Tulsa (ESPNU)

But that also leaves off the 64 college basketball games and the NBA/NHL games.

 

Here are the rest (the first four are in the Mid-American Conference):
Toledo at Eastern Michigan at 1:00
Ball State at Bowling Green at 1:00
Buffalo at Massachusetts at 1:00
Akron at Kent State at 1:00
Navy at South Alabama at 3:00

 

Why is American football your only concern?

 

Because it was late in the season and football is more popular than basketball and hockey.
Forgetting about what MLS wants, I think ESPN would give Virginia at Virginia Tech priority over MLS Cup. ESPN normally shows an NBA doubleheader on Friday nights. Without checking, I'm guessing ESPN2 showed the NBA while ESPN showed Virginia at Virginia Tech.

 

How does that work now that some of the bowls are for a Championship...GAH

 

MLS is never going to turn college football fans. The cultures are too disparate. We need to find the spot in the calendar with nothing else on and capitalize on that.

Most of the non-Revs fan New Englanders that I've spoken to who watched the Cup Final were general sports fans who, absent a Patriots game (by week), and with the Celts and Broons both sucking (and I believe not playing that particular Sunday) decided it was worth a watch.

Obviously a perfect storm for New England, but the goal should be to find the hole. These people were just as likely to flip on the Buffalo Wild Wings Car Care Bowl, they chose soccer because of the hometown thing and because it was a pretty sparse day.

 

FCS has a playoff that has 24 teams. FBS went from a championship game to a 4 team playoff in 2014-2015, with the two Semifinal games being bowl games. That's a big difference in the number of teams, and none of the FCS playoff games have "bowl" in their name. Because their playoff has five rounds, FCS ends their regular season earlier than FBS. The FCS playoffs started on Saturday November 29 (possibly Friday November 28).

 

MLS Cup should be the Sunday (or the second or third Sunday, depending on the year) after Memorial Day.

 

More importantly, the FCS championship is organized and officially recognized by the NCAA as a national championship. The FBS "College Football Playoff" is not (it is organized by the conferences).

 

Why does it have to be on the weekend. The FBS championship game is going to be on a Monday. It's been on a Monday for awhile. If your a college football fan, your going to watch. MLS can do the same thing.

 

TONS more football fans than MLS fans though. NCAA Championship game can with stand the competition from prime time dramas. Ratings normally are in the teens!

 

No, MLS Cup would be fine and great at that time of year in late spring.

It is the regular season that would be awkward and poorly aligned.

 

Certainly don't have to.

But certainly can.

The initial post in this thread was very on-topic and some quality and creative thinking.

Certainly a May/June MLS Cup would have some real advantages over a Nov/Dec MLS Cup.

 

In the short term, certainly.

Long term thinking and planning might be different.

And I'd argue it is not really "uprooting the entire schedule" to take off most of July and part of June and play games in more of Dec and a little bit of Feb. ymmv.

 

Does your 'long term planning' include weather becoming instantly manageable on half the continent in February, or folding/moving teams from north of DC?

 

February (or at least a good portion of it) is manageable.