SOCON HOOPS GOING UP AGAINST THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF ON NEW YEAR’S DAY; WOFFORD-UNCG TO BE NATIONALLY TELEVISED

 

By Matt Hill 

Back in the good ole days. Every major college football game was played on New Year’s Day and a national champion was pretty much known that night. In the last few years, the prestige of New Year’s Day bowl games has pretty much been erased and you have started seeing college basketball more regularly on the holiday. 

This year, the Southern Conference is going to join the leagues that are going toe-to-toe with college football. 

The Southern Conference will be playing on New Year’s Day this season including one game that is going to be nationally televised. The highlight of the day will be UNCG vs Wofford which has now been moved to 12 noon on CBS Sports Network. 

Other games on the schedule includes Furman vs Western Carolina at 1pm, Chattanooga vs Mercer at 7pm and The Citadel vs Samford at 7:30 pm (6:30pm central). 

ETSU and VMI are also playing in Johnson City, but the time of that game has not been set yet. I would expect that game to be an afternoon game, but no official word on that yet.  

I have heard some rumblings about this, even from media who cover SoCon teams as a beat. Here is my take on it. 

I don’t think fans of mid-major basketball are really that interested in the college football playoff. Most of them are probably fans of an FCS team and that would be the case in the SoCon. 

There is a potential conflict for ETSU in the fact that Tennessee has a very good chance in playing in the quarterfinals on New Year’s Day. The reason I say this is there are a lot of ETSU fans who split allegiances and are also University of Tennessee fans. Yes, there are the die-hards who despise the Orange, but for the most the part a lot of the fanbase are fans both of schools. 

ETSU is also playing VMI, who no offense, looks like will be toward the cellar of the SoCon and it probably won’t be the most entertaining game. Even if the crowd is down, ETSU still draws better than any team in the SoCon in men’s basketball and should still be able to draw decent, even with the students out of class for Christmas break. 

Two of the games are being played before the college football playoff comes on. What I was surprised about is Mercer and Samford are holding games in the evening. To me, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense when a lot of people are off work that day. Not real sure what the reasoning is, but it will set the stage for an all-day extravaganza of SoCon basketball. 

UNCG vs Wofford will be the marquee game of the day being shown on CBS Sports Network. It will be the first of five Southern Conference games being shown on CBS Sports Network. I have kind of wondered if the reach of that channel is much different than ESPN Plus that most SoCon games air, but it is still cool to see these two teams playing on the eyeball.  

So, this gets to the heart of the story. Is the SoCon making a mistake going head to head with the college football playoff? 

If it was the FCS Playoffs, I would say big mistake. However, I think this league in basketball is big enough to compete with the college football playoff. Like I said earlier, a lot of it is going to depend on when teams are playing. For example, like I mentioned with ETSU, if Alabama is in the playoffs and playing at that time, this might cause a few fans to stay away. However, these schools have fanbases that are going to be loyal to them no matter what.  

A lot of the SoCon is based of private institutions who really don’t have ties to the state University. ETSU and Chattanooga and possibly Western Carolina are the exceptions and no school from North Carolina is going to be in the college football playoff. These are true FCS and mid-major markets for the most part. 

Another thing I think is favoring this for me is should we really care what another sport is doing? I am sure some of the media would like to watch the CFP, but keep in mind these are quarterfinal games. These are not semifinal and final games. To me it doesn’t have quite the luster of having a semifinal or the way it was done back in the day. I think the SoCon is good enough of a basketball league to stand out and play on New Year’s Day. 

I used to look forward to the all-day college football on New Year’s Day. This year I can’t wait to do this for basketball in the most entertaining league in the country.