December 20 will be an all-you-can-eat buffet of high-leverage football.
Just like last year, the first in which the College Football Playoff expanded to 12 teams, this year will feature a Saturday in which the NFL and CFP go head-to-head, creating one of the most jam-packed days on the football calendar. This season, as previously announced, Fox will air an NFL doubleheader to go along with the CFP’s three first-round contests. Now, we know the kickoff times for those games.
On Tuesday, the NFL announced Fox’s doubleheader will begin with a Philadelphia Eagles-Washington Commanders game at 5 p.m. ET, immediately followed by a Green Bay Packers-Chicago Bears game at 8:20 p.m. ET. It was widely assumed that the NFL would schedule its doubleheader for the late-afternoon and primetime windows after ESPN designated two first-round games to air on TNT in similar windows. TNT airs two first-round CFP games as part of a sublicense agreement with ESPN. Its games will kickoff at a slightly different time than the NFL doubleheader on Fox, 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. ET, which should create enough overlap for fans to catch the ends of each game if desired.
The schedule does mark a bit of a change from last season. In 2024, the NFL scheduled its doubleheader for 1 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Fox respectively. The CFP games were scheduled for noon, 3:30, and 7:30 p.m. ET, the same as this year, but TNT aired the two early games, while ESPN aired the primetime game unopposed to NFL competition.
With Fox and the NFL moving the first game back to 5 p.m. ET this season, the CFP should have a bit more time to air unopposed compared to last year. More of the mid-afternoon game will air without NFL competition, while the noon game won’t face NFL competition whatsoever.
Still, the situation is not all that desirable for football fans that would like to watch each game in its entirety. The CFP has resisted a change that would move one of its three Saturday first-round games to Friday, thereby eliminating the need for much overlap between college and the NFL on Saturday.
Last year, the two CFP games to compete with the NFL fared poorly from a ratings perspective.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.