Should a Christmas Day All-Star Game Return to the Schedule?
Saturday's Camellia Bowl has us thinking about replacing the Blue-Gray Classic.
On Saturday, Ball State and Georgia State will face off at the venerable Cramton Bowl in the Camellia Bowl. This is the second year in a row that the game will occur on Christmas. Montgomery and the Cramton Bowl have a rich tradition in Christmas Day football, with the Blue-Gray Classic occurring on Christmas from 1979-2003, which you can read more about here.
It is refreshing to see football return to Christmas Day, but opportunities exist for a return of an all-star showcase on the 25th.
For starters, all-star games on Christmas Day are no new concept. The first All-Star game on Christmas Day was the North-South Shrine Game in Miami. The game occurred on Christmas from 1948-54, and in 1957, 1961, 1965, 1967-1970, and 1971-1972.
The first Christmas Day telecast of the game was in 1964 at 3 PM ET on ABC and the first Christmas night telecast was in 1972 at 9 PM ET on ABC. After the 1973 edition, the North-South Shrine Game took a three-year hiatus before disappearing forever.
The most well-known Christmas Day all-star game was the iconic Blue-Grey Classic. The Montgomery all-star game first moved to Christmas in 1954 and again in 1965, before a permanent move to the day in 1979. The game remained a network TV fixture from 1979-2001, first on CBS and then on ABC, before moving to ESPN in 2003 and dissolving after that year’s game.
On ABC, the game usually pre-empted the Aloha Bowl at noon ET. With the Camellia Bowl now on Christmas Day, ESPN can use an all-star game as either a lead-in to the game’s coverage or a nightcap for the day.
There are a couple of pre-Christmas games that can change dates. One is the FCS Bowl which is usually played on the second weekend of December and another is the HBCU Pigskin Showdown which played its inaugural game this past Sunday.
While neither game is a huge draw, the opportunity for exposure exists on a network like CBS Sports Network or even a streaming service like Peacock. Peacock would make a lot of sense for the upstart HBCU Pigskin Classic as NBC’s family of networks have had a longtime commitment to HBCU football.
Yet another option is the NAIA’s Senior Football Classic. The NAIA could benefit from some Christmas Day exposure considering the fact that ESPN relegated its championship game to ESPN3.
CBS Sports Network could make a 2-for-1 play and grab the rights to the NAIA title and football showcase and return Christmas Day college football to the network. Since 2019, CBS Sports has lost the rights to two bowl games, the Arizona Bowl and the Cure Bowl, so an all-star game is a solid consolation.
However, despite all the possibilities, an all-star game on Christmas faces significant hurdles. The most significant one is the proliferation of pro sports on Christmas. The NBA has long had a hold on Christmas Day, but now the NFL has regularly scheduled games on the day since 2016.
It would be hard to market an all-star game of players not playing in bowls and in lower divisions as a sexier alternative to the NFL or the NBA’s headlining matchups.
Despite these hurdles, there is hope for more college football on Christmas Day. While the idea is less of a novelty nowadays, with the advent of the internet and cable television, all-star games are still important in several ways.
Pre-Christmas all-star games like the North-South Shrine Game and Blue-Grey Classic gave legends like Roger Staubach and Jerry Rice a head start on outstanding careers. The Camellia Bowl’s move to Christmas may create the momentum needed for these classics to return and for a new generation of stars to kick start their careers.