The 12-team College Football Playoff has had mixed reviews so far. As far as the play on the field, many fans and analysts have loved the new format. That has equated to excellent viewership—except when the NFL is on at the same time.

Officials from both entities, including NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, met to discuss scheduling conflicts in the future.

NFL and CFP Officials Will Reportedly Work Together On Scheduling Overlap in the Future

As the calendar turns toward the New Year, the NFL regular season is coming to a close, just as the College Football Playoff is beginning.

The final weeks of the NFL season are filled with highly anticipated matchups determining the entire playoff picture. The CFP is very similar: highly-anticipated playoff games showcasing the best teams in the country.

In 2024, some of those games were scheduled on the same day at the same time.

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The first-round playoff game between the Penn State Nittany Lions and SMU Mustangs aired at the same time as the Patrick Mahomes-led Kansas City Chiefs battled the C.J. Stroud-led Houston Texans.

According to NBC Sports, the NFL dominated the viewership, pulling in an average of 15.5 million viewers for the Chiefs-Texans game, while an average of 6.4 million viewers tuned into Penn State-SMU.

It was the same story in the late afternoon window, where the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers matchup nearly doubled the viewership of the Texas Longhorns and Clemson Tigers playoff game.

However, changes may be coming in the future. Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports reported the news in a post on X on Saturday.

“CFP director Rich Clark says he visited with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell about the CFP/NFL overlapping schedules and Goodell says he’s ‘committed’ to working with CFP in the future on scheduling.”

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The lack of overlap for two of the first-round games made a huge difference for the CFP; on Friday night and Saturday night, with no NFL to compete against, the contests hosted by the Ohio State Buckeyes and Notre Dame Fighting Irish each averaged over 13 million viewers.

It’s no secret that money is the name of the game for both levels. Goodell being on board is huge for the future of the CFP and gaining a larger number of viewers. But how will it work?

Each year, the NFL has increasingly expanded the number of days of the week it occupies late in the season. With the numerous playoff scenarios, the league is aiming to capitalize on putting as many games on national TV as possible. Saturday triple-headers in Weeks 17 and 18 have been a huge success for the league—will they scrap that idea?

It’s highly unlikely due to the money that’s been generated in recent years. The CFP may need to overload more games onto Friday and hope that Goodell gives them a time slot on Saturday. Otherwise, there’s not much else to be done.

Goodell’s attempt to poach Christmas Day from the NBA is already underway. The NFL is king and will continue to steal viewers unless Goodell keeps his word and stays on board with scheduling talks with the CFP officials — and is willing to put his money where his mouth is.

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