Currently it is on a Sunday at 4 pm, smack in the same time frame as the NFL. Big mistake. Here is how I would change it. I would move the game to the same Saturday in December (usually the second one) as the Army-Navy game, which ends at around 7:00. I would schedule the game for 8:00. That particular weekend there is no NFL on Saturday (or college football other than Army-Navy), most college basketball schools either don't play (due to final exams) or play bad out-of-conference games, and the NBA is more of a Wed-Fri-Sun thing.
NCAA Football: Army-Navy, Heisman presentation NCAA Basketball last Saturday (date of Army-Navy): 14 top 25 games involving 15 ranked teams as well as Wichita St. UCLA, Tennessee, Arizona State, Texas, Oregon State, and Florida. NBA Basketball: 9 games NHL Hockey: 10 games MMA: A little UFC fight you might have heard about So while you might have a good idea, it really loses something when you can't be bothered to do basic research (you can see all the scores for sports going back a long way on ESPN) and instead say something blatantly wrong when you try to make your point.
NHL doesn't do big-time national television (except for NBC) so it is not really a factor. Like I said, the NBA is a major factor on Wed-Fri-Sun as far as TV is concerned. Saturday is NOT a national TV day for the NBA. You proved my point with college basketball: there was only one matchup of two top-25 teams, even if 13 other top-25 teams played cupcakes (aka not great games). I forgot about the Heisman presentation, but most people only watch for the selection, they don't care about the theatrics before, and the Heisman is getting less important every year. Finally, MMA is pay-per-view event with a niche market.
I think NBA TV has a national TV game on Saturdays, albeit with NBA TV not in as many homes as ESPN, ABC, and TNT that show NBA games. As for the college basketball, the original poster proposed MLS Cup at 8:00 P.M., and here are games with a ranked team that started at 6:00 P.M. or later on Saturday December 12: Florida vs. Michigan State at 6:00 P.M. Oregon vs. Boise State at 7:00 P.M. Oregon State vs. Kansas at 8:00 P.M. UCLA vs. Gonzaga at 10:00 P.M. As for the Heisman, would it have been a good lead-in for MLS Cup to be right after the Hesiman presentation?
Fox were showing paid programming between 1 and 3 pm the day before the Cup Final. Great opportunity missed.
Opposite championships for major conferences? I doubt ESPN/FOX will be willing to give up the airtime.
There's lots of sports in America. There's no free weekend. They all suck. The day isn't hurting our ratings, the impression of our league is.
Even before MLS existed, it was often claimed that the dates of the the MLB All-Star break were the only days of the year with no major professional team sport playing competitive games in the US. Schedule MLS Cup any day of the year, it'll go head to head with a big sporting event.
9 games means 18 NBA teams played that day -- that's the majority of the league. Teams tend to play a game every 2-3 days, so any day with a majority of the league playing is a heavier-than-average day for the NBA.
It's not the number of games played, its the coverage they receive. For example, the ESPN/ABC deal has Wednesday/Friday night games and Sunday afternoon games, and TNT has Sunday night games. Saturday night is more of an NBA TV (much fewer homes have this) and regional sports network (like CSN "pick your choice") night.
The only two games that would likely interfere with an MLS Cup final would be the middle two, and not many people outside of Oregon would watch Oregon basketball. Kansas is a bigger draw, no doubt, but Oregon St. is not very good at basketball, hence most non-Kansas fans would expect a blowout.
The Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving had rivalry games such as Florida State and Florida and Alabama at Auburn. The conference championship games were the week after that. I think Oregon, Oregon State, and Boise State are at the more popular end of the 351 Division I schools, but I agree that they probable are not among the 25 most popular. I only listed games with ranked teams and it's possible for an unranked team to have more fans than a ranked team.
Right, sorry. So even worse. Good luck getting FOX/ESPN to give up any time for MLS on rivalry weekend.
No-one anywhere else in the world will ever understand why so many American sports fans are passionate about teenage amateurs playing for colleges that most of them never attended. It's a unique culture.
In my case (and in the case of most people that come from Connecticut), UConn athletics represent our sports "club" so to speak: they are our professional team, as Connecticut has no true professional team.