CFB PLAYOFF BOWL GAME DATES CONFIRMED
Dates for the College Football Playoff fixtures from the quarter-finals stage have been revealed, cementing the various bowl games on the calendar.
The exclusive home of the CFP since its inception in 2015, ESPN is in the second year of its current expanded package — which also includes all four games of the CFP First Round — and helped make the announcement.
The 2025-26 schedule includes a New Year’s Day triple-header of quarter-final games all with new kickoff times, as the Capital One Orange Bowl (noon ET), the Rose Bowl Game presented by Prudential (4pm) and the Allstate Sugar Bowl (8pm) start earlier than their traditional windows.
“This New Year’s Day schedule adjustment is the result of a thoughtful collaboration between the CFP, ESPN, the Capital One Orange Bowl, the Rose Bowl Game presented by Prudential, and the Allstate Sugar Bowl,” explained Rich Clark, executive director of the College Football Playoff. “All three bowls shifting their start times allows us to place each game in an ideal window on New Year’s Day and provide the optimal viewing experience. New Year’s Day and college football are synonymous with each other, and these changes only strengthen that relationship.”
The 2026 CFP National Championship Game, slated for Monday 19th January at Hard Rock Stadium marks the event’s first appearance in Miami since 2021 contest, and the second straight season that ‘the Natty’ will return to a city for a second time, after Atlanta hosted the title contests in 2018 and 2025. The quartet of 2024-25 quarter-finals scored multi-year viewership highs, with the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl becoming the most-watched pre-3pm ET bowl game ever, with 17.3m viewers.
The semi-finals produced the most-watched Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic on record (20.6m viewers) and the second-most-watched Capital One Orange Bowl in nearly 20 years (17.8m viewers), while the National Championship Game between Ohio State and Notre Dame delivered 22.1m viewers to register as the most-watched non-NFL sporting event over the past year. The showdown peaked with 26.1 million viewers.
Further scheduling details, including Playoff first round dates, times and networks, will be announced later this year.
