How much football is too much? We’re about to find out

From Shakespeare to Bon Jovi, humans have been warned repeatedly that there can be too much of a good thing. Someone might want to tell the NFL and NCAA.

Autumn and winter weekends are reserved for football. People belly up to the bar with another beer and a plate of wings, and it doesn’t matter what game is on television. They are watching .

Football’s rise to the undisputed titan of sports both in attendance and television ratings has rarely experienced a speed bump. Viewership continues to trend upward.

Per the Associated Press , the NFL — which opens training camps for rookies for 21 teams this week — averaged 17.9 million viewers per game across all networks for the regular season in 2023, up by 7 percent from a year ago and the NFL's highest number since 2015. The NCAA experienced some positive trends as well, including massive numbers for the biggest games.

In 2024-2025, there will be more football than ever. The NFL continues to expand its schedule, even planting its flag on Christmas Day and Black Friday. The NCAA has expanded its College Football Playoff, which now means it will go toe-to-toe with the NFL in late December.

From Dec. 19 through Jan. 1, only two days don’t feature a football game. That's two more days of football than last season during that stretch. The NFL season will be played on 62 days this year, which was supposed to be more than last season, but game reschedules led to the 2023 season being played on 63 dates.

The NCAA is asking fans to tune in for its typical 17-week regular season. In a change to the schedule, it will have two bowl games on Dec. 14 to sandwich the Army-Navy game, which typically has had the day to itself.

Three new College Football Playoff games will be played on Dec. 21 against a pair of NFL games. The CFP quarterfinals will be played on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day before semifinal games falling on Thursday, Jan. 9 and Friday, Jan.10. The championship will be played at its latest date in history, Monday, Jan. 20.

When combined, football is asking fans to tune in on days they are not typically conditioned to watch a football game. More holidays are being taken over by football, and an added number of weeknights will feature marquee games.

So, is it too much?

The viewership will tell the story at the end of the seasons, and if it continues as it has, the answer will be a firm no.

Perhaps football, despite all the warnings over history, is invincible — a ratings juggernaut that can never satisfy humankind’s desires for more.