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Not a stranger to being a groundbreaking college football bowl game, the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl will once again provide a first, this time on New Year’s Eve.
The Fiesta Bowl will begin the new era of the expanded College Football Playoff and host the first quarterfinal game on Tuesday, Dec. 31 at 5:30 p.m. from State Farm Stadium, on ESPN. The Fiesta Bowl was the site of the CFP semifinal in 2022 where TCU beat Michigan 51-45.
The Fiesta Bowl in an exclusive television window on Dec. 31 followed by the three other quarterfinals’ matchups on Jan. 1, 2025. One team will have a bye into the CFP quarterfinal at the Fiesta Bowl and be announced on Sunday, Dec. 8. Two other teams will play in a first round matchup on Dec. 20 or Dec. 21, with the winner advancing to the Fiesta Bowl.
Winners of the quarterfinal round will move on to the CFP Semifinals the following week to compete for a berth in the CFP National Championship Game. The Fiesta Bowl will host a CFP Semifinal on Jan. 8, 2026, to close out the 2025-26 season.
The new format, which will debut next season, will increase from four to 12 playoff teams. When CFP debuted after the 2014 season, it fielded 3% of the Football Bowl Subdivision. This year, that number increased to 9%.
The CFP field will still be decided by a 13-member committee using the same criteria.
The 12 teams will include five conference champs and seven at-large teams. The four highest-ranked conference champions are guaranteed the top four seeds with byes, and the remaining eight teams are seeded in order. Seeds 5-8 will host seeds 9-12 in first-round games on campus, with the winners heading to quarterfinals against the top four seeds at New Year’s Six bowl sites.
Here is the CFP schedule including networks:
Friday, Dec. 20
CFP First Round game, 6 p.m. AZT, ABC and ESPN
Saturday, Dec. 21
CFP First Round game, 10…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football-playoffs-fiesta-bowl-194739328.html
Author : AZCentral | The Arizona Republic
Publish date : 2024-06-05 19:47:39
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