The initial 12-team College Football Playoff schedule has officially been released.
The CFP announced the dates and times for all 11 games in the expanded playoff format on Wednesday, with the first game taking place on Friday, Dec. 20, one month before the national championship game on Monday, Jan. 20.
The four first-round matches will be played on December 20 and 21. The first match will kick off at 8 pm ET on Friday, while the other three matches will be played on Saturday. TNT Sports will broadcast the first two matches on Saturday at noon and 4 pm ET, while ABC will broadcast the primetime matches at 8 pm ET along with Friday’s match.
The remaining games will be broadcast on ESPN. Game 1 of the quarterfinals will be played on Tuesday, December 31 at 7:30 pm ET in the Fiesta Bowl. The three quarterfinal games will be played on New Year’s Day. The first game will be the Peach Bowl at 1 pm, followed by the traditional Rose Bowl on January 1 at 5 pm ET and the Sugar Bowl at 8:45 pm ET.
This year’s semifinals will be played in the Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl. The Orange Bowl will be played on Thursday, January 9th at 7:30pm ET. The Cotton Bowl will be played the same time the following day.
The early two first-round games on Saturday will be against two NFL opponents: the Kansas City Chiefs host the Houston Texans (1 p.m. ET) and the Baltimore Ravens take on the Pittsburgh Steelers (4:30 p.m. ET) on Dec. 21. All four teams will play on Wednesday, Dec. 25 this season.
After a decade of a four-team playoff, college football leaders voted to expand the playoff to 12 teams for the 2024 season. The top five conference champions in the CFP rankings will automatically qualify for the playoff, while the remaining seven teams will be selected by ranking.
The top four conference champions will receive the top four seeds and advance to the quarterfinals, while the teams ranked 5th through 8th will host their quarterfinals in their home stadiums. Conference champions will be matched in the quarterfinals by long-time conference affiliations, if possible, meaning the SEC champions will likely play in the Sugar Bowl and the Big Ten champions in the Rose Bowl.
The Jan. 20 national championship game would be 12 days later than the national title game at the end of the 2023 season. Michigan would win the final four-team playoff on Jan. 8, 2024, beating Washington 34-13 after the semifinal was played on Jan. 1.
