The NFL Conference Championships will be held Jan. 23, 2005. When we get to this point there are four teams left, two AFC and two NFC, all looking to get the final win to make it to the Super Bowl. Both games are held the same day, one right after the other.
Now, both New York teams are performing reasonably well this year. Right now, it seems that both the Jets and Giants have a decent shot at making into the playoffs as wild cards. My question is this: How would the NFL handle it if both teams advanced to the Conference Championships with home-field advantage records? Giants Stadium is home field for both of these teams. It’d be a logistical impossibility to have a game there at 1:00 and 4:15. The parking lot along couldn’t handle the crush of fans coming and going.
How do you think the NFL would handle this? Perhaps making one game at 1:00 and one at 8:00? I suppose there would be some push for holding one of the games on Saturday, but I’m sure that would raise some hackles for the teams that suddenly find they’ve lost a day of practice. What’cha think?
I’d guess that they’d move one of the games to Saturday, probably the Giants game. More than what the teams think, I think what CBS and Fox want would be more important. If you moved one of the games to Sunday night at 8:00, you’d be cutting right into Sunday night programming for both station. Unlikely they’d be willing to do that…
So it’s off to Saturday for one of the games, I’m just assuming it’d be the Fox game, since their Saturday schedule at least around these parts consists mainly of old movies. Not too much of a loss…CBS would probably have college hoops or at least something that would generate some rating.
BTW, this won’t matter since the Giants won’t make the playoffs.
Hmm…very good point. I hadn’t even considered the broadcaster’s role in this. I suppose that once Wild Card weekend ended, the possibility of this happening after the Divisional Championships would be pretty apparent and it would be negotiated on a “just in case” basis.
However, if it were up to the boradcasters, then I’m thinking there would be an 8:00 Sunday game. What do you think would pull bigger numbers, FOX’s “comedy” Sunday lineup, or playoff football? CBS and FOX would probably be fighting to be the one who “has” to show the late Sunday game.
Ahhh, fret not…assuming the Pack manage to make the postseason, there’s every chance they’ll get to meet the Giants to try and avenge the humiliating loss Big Blue put on them. They’ll be unsuccessful, of course, but they can certainly try.
I may be entirely misremembering, but didn’t they do very late games, with very little rhyme or reason, last year? I seem to recall thinking that they were playing at night (maybe it was late afternoon, but it was dark) in very cold places. I don’t think much logic goes into it.
But it’s not going to happen anyway, so it’s a moot point. NFC championship is going to be Giants at Philly and the AFC championship in Pittsburgh (with the Patriots in a return visit, possibly the Chargers).
Ha! You’re forgetting the Chargers amazing ability to collapse in the 2nd half of the season. It’s like counting on Brian Griese to suck. They’ll finish 3rd. In their division.
First I’d say this a 98% likelyhood that the games would happen on Saturday and Sunday. Especially since the two networks aren’t under contract to carry primetime games. Since the Saturday-Sunday breakdown is SOP for the first two rounds, it seems to create the least hassle as far as the networks are concerned. Even a 1PM and 8PM Sunday start would be nearly as logistically crazy. Suppose game one goes into OT, you’re looking at probably a 4.5 hr game with the extra playoff TV timeouts. That still would really only leave 2 or so hours between games to clear the lots and prepare the stadium. There’d have to be a really compelling reason to force 2 games on Sunday instead of using Saturday…and as evidenced by the proliferation of Thursday night games, the teams practice schedule isn’t one of them. Nevermind the havoc it’d create for the tailgaters!
Lastly, forget about it. Neither NY team is making the playoffs. I’ll put substantial money on that fact.
First of all if the Giants and Jets both are the homefield teams for the conference championship games, both CBS and Fox will hold a small-scale celebration because of their good fortune.
A combo of say a Jets-Steelers and an Eagles-Giants championship would be a ratings bonanza!
You couldn’t have the games on the same day in the stadium. It would be logistically impoossible to move crowds that big in and out of the stadium.
