Greg McElroy 'doesn't care' about College Football Playoff going up against NFL under new model

Like everyone around the college football landscape, ESPN commentator and analyst Greg McElroy has an opinion on the new College Football Playoff format. The format will start with the 2024 season and feature four different sets of games play over a months span.

The first round of games will take place on Friday, December 20, and Saturday, December 21. Those games on the Saturday will go head-to-head with NFL games.

While some, including Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt, do not like that sound of that at all, McElroy is excited for the college football to take on that challenge.

“You will be going head-to-head against NFL games,” McElroy said on the Always College Football podcast. “I don’t care. I don’t care. Now everybody and their brother — and now, look, I’m a diehard college football fan. But guess what, I like the NFL too. I think the NFL is the highest quality of football that’s played on planet Earth. It’s the best players. It’s the best execution. It’s the most incredible talent that you can put on the gridiron. But I don’t care. Why? Because we’re going up against the regular season.

“I’m not saying the regular season doesn’t matter. It does. It absolutely does, especially those last couple of weeks of the regular season, where playoff positioning and jockeying is going on. But guess what? There are bad teams in the NFL. If you don’t believe me, ask the Houston Texans last couple years. If you don’t believe me, ask some of the other teams that have been in the mix for the first overall pick. There is bad football that’s played on Sundays and, at the end of December, played on Saturdays.”

Greg McElroy says playoff games will be more interesting than NFL regular season games

One of the reasons Greg McElroy said he wasn’t worried about college football going up against the NFL was that, at least for the first round of the playoff, the professional games would be regular season affairs.

“What would you rather watch as a football fan?” McElroy said. “An average divisional game between two NFL teams or do you want to watch a win or go home playoff game with the highest imaginable stakes. Now, will we win that day as far as television viewership? No, we won’t. I think it’s unlikely that we win going head to head against the NFL. The NFL will always rate higher for the most part than college football but let’s at least try.”

The rest of the college football playoff schedule will likely finesse itself around directly competiting against the NFL schedule at least right now. New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are a Tuesday and Wednesday and then the semifinals will be held on a Thursday and Friday before a Monday national championship game.

“It’s a playoff game in a unique home field environment, which could very well pit Ohio State against Notre Dame,” McElroy said. “That’s a possible matchup. It could pit Alabama against Washington. It could pit any of these teams in a home field environment with so much on the line. I don’t care if the NFL plays on Saturdays. I want college football to also play on Saturdays. If we have to go toe to toe with them, so be it. Some people will watch NFL. Some people watch college. Who cares. Let’s throw our best stuff at them because the playoff is the best stuff we have.”