College Football Playoff first round to go head-to-head with NFL with semifinals to be played on weekdays

When the College Football Playoff expands to 12 teams in the 2024 season, first-round games will be played on both Friday and Saturday in the third week of December with quarterfinal and semifinal action also spread across more than one day, CFP commissioner Bill Hancock confirmed on Thursday. In an effort to avoid conflict with the TV ratings giant of postseason NFL football, the College Football Playoff semifinals will be played on weeknights — presumably Thursday and Friday — so as not to interfere with the NFL Wild Card Weekend slate. 

Under the current four-team format, days of the week for semifinal games have fluctuated while the championship game has been played on Monday nights once the NFL regular season — and the NFL’s weekly “Monday Night Football” showcase — had concluded for the season. But with the NFL regular season now creeping into January, and including many games on Saturdays late in the season, the days on the calendar during which the CFP can have the spotlight are more sparse.

Even the NFL Wild Card weekend is now spread across Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The expansion to a 12-team field finally became official on Dec. 1, 2022 following starts and stops from college football’s power brokers. First-round games will be hosted either at home stadiums of the highest-seeded teams in those games or other sites chosen by that programs for logistical purposes. The extra games are expected to general roughly $450 million in television revenue for the CFP and its members.