The schedule for the first 12-team College Football Playoff has been released, with all the dates and times for the expanded playoff format announced. The first game will take place on Friday, Dec. 20, a month before the national championship game on Monday, Jan. 20.
The four first-round games will be played on Dec. 20 and Dec. 21, with the first game kicking off at 8 p.m. ET on Friday, while the three other games are on Saturday. TNT Sports will broadcast the first two games on Saturday at Noon and 4 p.m. ET, while ABC will have the primetime game at 8 p.m. ET along with Friday’s game. ESPN will broadcast the rest of the games in this round, including the Fiesta Bowl at 7:30 p.m., followed by three quarterfinal games on New Year’s Day: Peach Bowl at 1 p.m., Rose Bowl at its traditional slot of 5 p.m., and Sugar Bowl at 8:45 p.m., with ESPN as its broadcaster too.
The Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl are this year’s semifinal sites, taking place on Thursday and Friday respectively.
After a decade of a four-team playoff, college football leaders have decided to expand it to twelve teams for the upcoming season in 2024.
The top five conference champions in CFP rankings automatically qualify for this new expanded playoff format while seven teams are chosen via rankings.
In this new format, teams ranked from Nos.’5 to ‘8 host quarterfinal games in their home stadiums while conference champions get byes into quarterfinals if possible.
The conference champions get assigned to quarterfinals based on longtime affiliation if possible; meaning SEC champion is likely to play in Sugar bowl and Big Ten champion is likely to play in Rose bowl.
Overall, this new College Football Playoff format promises more excitement than ever before as more teams vie for a chance at glory!
