Ahead of the College Football Playoff National Championship game between the Ohio State Buckeyes and Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the people in charge of the playoff format have begun discussing the first year of the 12-team playoff, looking at what worked well, what didn’t, and any questions it brought up about the postseason. Among these include potentially holding more playoff games at college campuses.
Rich Clark on Changing CFP Games’ Venue Amid Bowl Games’ Contracts
College sports insider Nicole Auerbach relayed CFP executive director Rich Clark’s meetings with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell about scheduling among other things. One of these was about CFP game venues. Right now, the playoff contests are held at neutral sites like big bowl games, not on college campuses, outside of the first round.
Regarding this, Clark said that they’re open to the idea of moving some more games to on-campus locations in the future as fans liked those matchups.
As relayed by Auerbach, Clark said: “We’ll talk about it for sure. The campus games were amazing.”
CFP executive director Rich Clark, asked about the possibility of having additional rounds on campus in the future: “We’ll talk about it for sure. The campus games were amazing.”
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) January 18, 2025
Per another post by Auerbach, there are no contracts signed yet for playoff games after the 2025 season, which means the CFP could move playoff games to campuses without having to break any existing agreements with bowl games. However, nothing has been decided yet.
In light of this, it’s important to note that the CFP is governed by two main bodies: the Board of Managers and the Management Committee, made up of university presidents and athletic directors from the conferences involved, the decision makers for where playoff games are held and other such adjustments.
The general idea of holding most playoff games at neutral sites is so that the participating teams don’t hold a home-field advantage. It also leads to more sponsors. Meanwhile, the consensus among many fans is that it could be a good idea to play playoff games on college campuses as it would be less expensive for fans and would mean a good economy for local businesses.
If this does come to fruition, it could lead to more changes in how the postseason is structured.
The first round of the CFP were all held at college stadiums in 2024, with the Notre Dame-Indiana game played at Notre Dame Stadium. Penn State-SMU was at Beaver Stadium, the home field of the Nittany Lions. In the third contest, Texas faced off against Clemson at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, while the final game of Ohio State vs. Tennessee was played at Ohio Stadium. All home teams won their respective games.
After that, the quarterfinals and the semifinals were played out at bowl arenas.
Meanwhile, the CFP National Championship game between Notre Dame and Ohio State on Jan. 20, will be played at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the home turf of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons.
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