National Championship – A final on a Monday?

The National Championship is scheduled for this Monday 20th January (Tuesday at 1.30am for us in the UK). Notre Dame Fighting Irish will take on Ohio State Buckeyes at the Mercedes Benz stadium in Atlanta. 

For those of you like me who grew up looking forward to FA Cup final day on a Saturday (always at 3pm), a major final on a Monday may seem a bit strange. The bulk of college football games are played on Saturdays so why put this game on a Monday? 

The main reason for playing the game on a Monday is that it carves out a clear TV audience from the NFL matches. At this time of year the final rounds or the early rounds of the playoffs are normally underway – for example the NFL divisional round is being held this weekend. This became a bigger issue this season where the bigger CFB playoff bracket (more on that another time) meant that the National Championship game has been pushed out to mid January rather than earlier in January which would see if clash more with the final rounds of the NFL regular season rather than playoffs. 

As it happens, this Monday 20th is actually a holiday in the US as it is Martin Luther King day so some of our friends stateside will be able to watch the game without rushing home from work, albeit I suspect classes and lectures will be a little rough for the students of the winning team on Tuesday morning.

For us in the UK, a late night on Sunday is no different to a late night on a Monday in theory!

The game itself features two big hitters with deep histories. The Buckeyes may be a lot of people’s favourites to win this one but you never know in a one-off game. Whatever the sport, it is reasonable common to see in a final one team turn up and execute their game plan perfectly whilst the other doesn’t quite get out of the starting blocks or the occasion getting the better of them. 

Notre Dame have passed a number of challenges to get to this point but this may be one task too far for them. I have Ohio St winning in a close game. 

In the UK we can watch the game live on Sky Sports NFL with coverage starting at midnight on Tuesday 21st January. As luck would have it I am working from home on Tuesday…