According to a sports media insider, the College Football Playoff sided with its teams over its media partner when deciding the start time of the Sugar Bowl.

Wednesday’s suspected terrorist attack in New Orleans led to the College Football Playoff quarterfinal game between Georgia and Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl being postponed until Thursday. The rescheduling had a few twists and turns.

The game’s postponement was initially reported and announced as a 24-hour postponement, which would have resulted in another kickoff at 8:45 p.m. ET. However, later on Wednesday, Thursday’s kick-off time of 4:00 p.m. ET was officially announced.

Pucks John Ourand, formerly Sports Business Journalsaid Friday that ESPN wanted to broadcast the game in prime time, but the network was ultimately overruled by the CFP.

Interestingly, ESPN even had the green light to move the Gator Bowl’s kickoff time. The game in Jacksonville between Ole Miss and Duke had a scheduled kickoff of 7:30 p.m. ET.

The playoff calendar posed a problem. In the CFP round, the Sugar Bowl and Fiesta Bowl face each other in the semifinals. Penn State won the Fiesta Bowl on Tuesday night.

Georgia and Notre Dame expressed concerns about a prime-time opener on Thursday as the winner planned to leave New Orleans in the early hours of Friday and fell even further behind in PSU’s preparation.

“Ultimately, CFP decided on a 4:00 p.m. ET kickoff based on feedback from teams, security and law enforcement,” Ourand explained.

While this was certainly a ratings disappointment for ESPN, ratings were not the primary concern at this year’s Sugar Bowl.

(H/T terrible announcement)

Andrew writes about sports to support his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly supports the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.