Where is the 2023 College Football National Championship Game held? It might sound like an absurd question, but with a rotating host each year, it isn’t always easy to remember where the pinnacle of college football will be played. Fear not, we’ve got all the information about the 2023 College Football National Championship Game location you could ever need.
2023 College Football National Championship Game Location
- Location: Inglewood, California
- Stadium: SoFi Stadium
The host of the 2023 College Football National Championship was decided back in 2017 as part of an announcement on the location of four editions of the college football title game. Prior to the College Football Playoff and College Football National Championship Game, the BCS National Championship Game rotated between four locations.
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The CFP Selection Committee aimed to take the title game to multiple markets. During the announcement that SoFi Stadium would be the location for the 2023 College Football National Championship Game, CFP Executive Bill Hancock reiterated that commitment to moving the title game from the traditional four states that hosted the BCS.
“We said we were gonna move the championship game around when we started the Playoff,” Hancock told the media in November 2017. “We were serious about that and now we’ve done it.”
SoFi Stadium To Host the College Football National Championship for the First Time
SoFi Stadium was still under construction in Hollywood Park when the 2023 College Football National Championship’s location unveiled to the public. The stadium didn’t open its doors until 2020. As a result, the 2023 College Football National Championship will be the first time that the premier event on the college football calendar will be held in the 70,240-capacity stadium.
Despite its infancy, SoFi Stadium is no stranger to holding major sporting events. When the 2023 College Football National Championship Game kicks off on Jan. 9, 2023, it will be just under a year since Inglewood hosted Super Bowl 56. The stadium is also home to the Los Angeles Chargers and Los Angeles Rams, with the latter becoming the first team to win a Super Bowl in their home stadium.
Although the 2023 College Football National Championship will be the first time SoFi Stadium has hosted the title game, college football has been played there previously. In July 2019, the LA Bowl was born as a postseason contest between the Mountain West Conference champion and the fifth-ranked team from the Pac-12. The first game should’ve taken place in 2020.
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However, the global pandemic meant that Oregon State and Utah State played the inaugural game in 2021, by which time the event had been dubbed the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl. A crowd of just under 30,000 saw the Aggies emerge with a 24-13 victory in the place where over double that amount of people will witness the 2023 College Football National Championship.
While the 2023 College Football National Championship will be the first time that SoFi Stadium has hosted a title game, the state of California has been a consistent location for the college football finale.
In 2019, Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara was the location — Clemson obliterated Alabama 44-16 to win the national title. Prior to that, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena was part of the BCS National Championship rotation. In fact, the Rose Bowl held the final title game of the BCS era as 94,208 people witnessed FSU defeat Auburn. That was the last time the Seminoles went to a national title game.
