The College Football Playoff (CFP) Board of Managers has officially released the schedule for the first two years of its expanded 12-team format.
CFP held its annual spring meetings in Irving last week and has set up everything except the game locations.
“We are pleased to be able to announce these game dates today,” said Bill Hancock, executive director of CFP, in a press release. “We appreciate the efforts of all the parties involved in finalizing this schedule. This is the next significant step in bringing clarity to the launch of the 12-team playoff format in 2024. We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but this is an important milestone along the way.”
The schedule extends deeper into the new year, avoids competition from the NFL on Sundays, features games on weeknights, and has multiple tripleheaders.
The field will consist of the six highest-ranked conference champions and the following six highest-ranked teams at the end of the season. The top four teams will receive first-round byes, while the remaining eight will play first-round playoff games.
First-round playoff games will happen on college campuses beginning December 20, 2024. One game will be played on December 20, while three more will occur on December 21.
“Our charge is going to be to make what we do fit the same in Knoxville as it does in Ann Arbor as it does in Eugene,” Hancock told ESPN last week. “It will be a home game in many ways with pageantry, but there will also be visiting team pageantry, similar to what happens in bowl games.”
Quarterfinals will be at New Year’s Six bowl sites on New Year’s Eve, with a tripleheader on New Year’s Day. The Fiesta Bowl will host the first quarterfinal, while the Peach, Rose, and Sugar Bowls will host the other three.
The Orange Bowl and the Cotton Bowl will be the host bowl games for the semifinals, played on Thursday, January 9, and Friday, January 10, 2025. The National Championship remains on Monday night and will play on January 20, 2025, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
The 2025-26 playoffs will begin similarly on December 19, 2025.
The Cotton Bowl and Fiesta Bowl will trade places in the schedule that year as the Cotton Bowl hosts a quarterfinal, and the Fiesta Bowl hosts a semifinal.
Lastly, the 2026 National Championship will be in Miami Gardens, Florida, on January 19, 2026.
The schedule beyond the 2025-26 season has yet to be announced.