CFP committee confirms dates for first round of expanded playoff


Fiyah

Administrator
Staff member
The inaugural first-round games of a 12-team College Football Playoff will feature one game Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, and three games Dec. 21, 2024, CFP executive director Bill Hancock said Thursday following the conclusion of CFP spring meetings.

The CFP is also zeroing in on confirming midweek games for the 2024 quarterfinals, with three games Jan. 1, 2025, and the fourth quarterfinal game either New Year's Eve or Jan. 2, 2025, to avoid competing against the NFL wild-card weekend.

"We want to preserve as much prep time between the rounds as we possibly can," Hancock said. "I wouldn't want to share any details about our conversations with the NFL, but we have a good relationship with them."

 




There will be 12 teams with four rounds of competition. Due to preexisting scheduling challenges, the playoff will be spread out, pushing the action deep into January (the title game is on Martin Luther King Day, or the 20th). This has generally been a time on the sports calendar owned solely by the NFL playoffs.

The result, combined with the previously expanded NFL playoffs (14 teams, up from 12), is a never-before-experienced football-viewing nirvana.

Namely, college football will stage its two semifinals on the Thursday and Friday evenings prior to the NFL’s wild-card weekend, which sees six games played over three days. The result:

Thursday Jan. 9: CFP semifinal

Friday Jan. 10: CFP semifinal

Saturday Jan. 11: two NFL playoff games

Sunday Jan. 12: three NFL playoff games

Monday Jan. 13: one NFL playoff game

That’s five consecutive days/nights of do-or-die playoff action, featuring eight games at two different levels of the sport.

That’s not just a lot of football. That’s a whole lot of high-stakes, high-intensity football.

It repeats in 2026, except the college semis begin on Thursday, Jan. 8.
 
So basically... like every other division of football

And when the G5 schools Sue because their champ is left out, that 20+ team model will be a lock
 
Hmmmmm

Phil Nickerson​


Here's an idea since there are many who now want a 16 team playoff. Since the SEC is so much better and stronger than any other conference by at least 4X, and the mechanisms are in place with the transfer portal, why not have the playoffs with just the 16 SEC teams and use all of the other conferences as the farm teams to the SEC? The SEC teams will use the transfer portal to move players around throughout the year. That way, all of this ridiculous banter of other conferences attempting to feign superiority will go away and we'll wind up with the best possible teams truly fighting for the top spot!

Thoughts?
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