Utah Utes lengthy snapper Keegan Markgraf, large receiver Britain Covey, linebacker Devin Lloyd, quarterback Cameron Rising and defensive finish Mika Tafua (42) stroll onto the sphere for the sport towards Ohio State within the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022. Laura Seitz, Deseret Information
On Wednesday night time, a number of shops reported that the Rose Bowl had determined to do what it wanted to stay a part of the School Soccer Playoff, clearing the way in which for the CFP to increase from 4 to 12 groups starting within the 2024 season, a transfer that was made official on Thursday morning.
Previous to Wednesday, a number of shops reported the Rose Bowl had been insisting that the sport would stay on New 12 months’s Day, beginning at 3 p.m. Mountain Time, within the new format for 2026 and past (the CFP was initially not going to increase till its contract with ESPN expires after the 2025-26 season, however there was a significant push to maneuver it up two years).
Moreover, the sport is scheduled to characteristic its conventional matchup of Pac-12 and Massive Ten champions in 2024 and 2025, however the CFP was trying to have it's a quarterfinal recreation in an expanded playoff.
This is able to have virtually absolutely meant that it wouldn’t have all the time been possible to have the sport characteristic a Pac-12 staff and a Massive Ten staff and have it begin on Jan. 1 at 3 p.m. MT, and Rose Bowl officers had been reportedly apprehensive about making these concessions (the Rose Bowl has been a semifinal host thrice for the reason that CFP’s inception in 2015 and thus featured groups exterior the Pac-12 and Massive Ten).
Had the Rose Bowl not made these concessions (the CFP gave it a deadline of Wednesday, a number of shops reported), it will have been a success to each the CFP and the sport itself.
The CFP needs the Rose Bowl because it is among the elite bowls on the schedule every year, however had bowl officers not agreed to be versatile, it may have threatened that elite standing.
In essence, the Rose Bowl’s preliminary unwillingness to be versatile stored the CFP from having the ability to increase, however it has now been in a position to take action.
Because it stands, right here’s how the expanded playoff can be formatted starting in 2024, per the CFP’s official announcement Thursday:
- The primary spherical (the highest 4 groups may have byes) can be performed the week ending Dec. 21, with video games “at both the house subject of the higher-seeded staff or at one other website designated by the higher-seeded establishment.”
- In 2024, the quarterfinals can be on the Fiesta Bowl, Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl, with the Cotton Bowl and Orange Bowl internet hosting the semifinals. In 2025, the quarterfinals can be on the Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl, with the Fiesta Bowl and Peach Bowl internet hosting the semifinals.
- The nationwide championship video games can be performed January 20, 2025, in Atlanta, and January 19, 2026, in Miami.