Technically, Gary Bettman has a point. The NHL's Winter Classic event did indeed do better than college football's New Year's Day offerings, despite only posting a disappointing 2.4 TV rating. That's because no college football games were played on New Year's Day, as college games cleared out to make room for NFL Sunday. Then again, the Winter Classic didn't happen on New Year's either, as it also wisely avoided the NFL. I'm confused too.
The following bowls had higher ratings than the NHL's event -- the ones in bold would've been played on New Year's Day in any other year:
- BCS Championship, LSU vs. Alabama: 14.01
- Rose, Wisconsin vs. Oregon: 10.17
- Fiesta, Stanford vs. Oklahoma State: 9.6
- Sugar, Michigan vs. Virginia Tech: 6.07
- Outback, Georgia vs. Michigan State: 5.14
- Cotton, Arkansas vs. Kansas State: 4.95
- Orange, Clemson vs. West Virginia: 4.56
- Alamo, Washington vs. Baylor: 4.41
- Chick-fil-A, Auburn vs. Virginia: 3.6
- Champs Sports, Notre Dame vs. Florida State: 3.28
- Insight, Iowa vs. Oklahoma: 3.0
- Capital One, Nebraska vs. South Carolina: 2.86
- Sun, Georgia Tech vs. Utah: 2.71
- Holiday, Texas vs. Cal: 2.69
- Meineke Car Care, Texas A&M vs. Northwestern: 2.69
- Music City, Mississippi State vs. Wake Forest, 2.66
Gonna be honest: not sure if I even watched the Music City. And the Kraft Fight Hunger between two teams that combined for 13 losses heading in, quite possibly the worst bowl game ever, finished just shy, with a 2.3.
I don't know why I care what Gary Bettman says. This whole thing has a someone is wrong on the internet quality to it.
While we’re here, let’s watch some college football videos from SB Nation’s new YouTube channel together:
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