The College Football Playoff announced the dates and bowl sites for its upcoming quarterfinal and semifinal games for the 2026 and 2027 Playoffs in a release Tuesday afternoon.

Check out the full schedule below:

2026-27 Playoffs

Quarterfinals

• Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2026, at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl

• Friday, Jan. 1, 2027, at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and the Rose Bowl Game presented by Prudential

Semifinals

• Thursday, Jan. 14, 2027, at the Capital One Orange Bowl

• Friday, Jan. 15, 2027, at the Allstate Sugar Bowl

National Championship

• Monday, Jan. 25, 2027 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada

2027-28 Playoffs

Quarterfinals

• Friday, Dec. 31, 2027, at the Allstate Sugar Bowl

• Saturday, Jan. 1, 2028, at the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl, Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and the Rose Bowl Game presented by Prudential

Semifinals

• Thursday, Jan. 13, 2028, at the Capital One Orange Bowl

• Friday, Jan. 14, 2028, at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic

National Championship

• Monday, Jan. 24, 2028 at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans

On3

College Football Playoff announces quarterfinal, semifina...

The College Football Playoff announced the dates and bowl sites for its upcoming quarterfinal and semifinal games for the 2026, 2027 Playoffs.

Guess who is miffed? Kiff, of course. But when it comes to the absurdity of the college football calendar, Kiffin is spot on. Along with another 135 FBS head coaches.

Where do they find these guys? The figurehead who leads this mess, Rich Clark, notes that the weeks between PO games help with 'competitive balance.' That's rich, Mr. Clark. 🤪

Today's college administrators would sell their Grandmother, Mother, and maybe even their pet dog, for a few shekels more.

On3

Lane Kiffin criticizes 2026, 2027 College Football Playof...

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Note also that the Orange Bowl is getting back-to-back semi-final games. Why? Because the Rose Bowl refuses to move off Jan. 1 as the date of the game.

The six bowl games are in a rotation, except for semi-final games. That means, a team from the West will periodically have a semi-final game at the Fiesta Bowl but never at the Rose Bowl. Which means teams from the West will go East for a semi-final most years at Orange, Peach, Sugar, Cotton.

That butters the bread for the Rose Bowl organization which prefers the parade and game the same day to draw maximum visitors, and avoid L.A. traffic problems, by being on Jan. 1; but, will cause West Coast fans to have to spend more bread to travel to other non-West venues.

Perhaps the fairest "solution" would be to grant the Fiesta Bowl all semi-finals that would otherwise go to the Rose Bowl? It seems unfair for the Orange Bowl, Peach Bowl ...to receive more semi-finals at the expense of West Coast fans? Or, add Las Vegas automatically to replace the Rose Bowl in years when the Rose Bowl would have been the semi-final recipient? Those years would be known in advance and Las Vegas could plan around those years in terms of their other convention obligations.

Having the Rose Bowl on any other day besides January 1st is criminal IMO. Barely one of the last college football traditions that still exist, even though the matchups are different.

Then keep the Rose Bowl on January 1, but offer its semi-final rotation status to another venue such as Vegas or Fiesta Bowl x 2.

If the Rose won't/can't offer itself for a semi-final, then that screws teams in the West who qualify for a semi-final that instead will require fans to travel to Miami, Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas....

#5 Oregon was the only one of twelve teams west of the Rockies. After winning your home game, they could/should have been in the Rose Bowl with IU and Bama playing in Dallas. That would not have mattered to IU fans nor Bama fans. You beat IU and could/would play in Phoenix instead of Atlanta. With Miami keeping their championship game.

#1 Indiana could have played in New Orleans only because the semi's were in Atlanta. Then Atlanta and Miami

#6 Ole Miss/#3 Georgia would have had no choice but two games in Atlanta if IU was in New Orleans.

#2 Ohio State would have had no choice but to play in Dallas.

Logistics and Marketing for the cities would stay close to the same since they do not know any sooner than us, who the teams are.

Under the 2025 playoffs, Vegas is not listed, but they should be in the list of six cities that rotate from year to year. Pasadena would be skipped every year for the championship game due to their need/requirement/wants to remain on January 1. Or keep them in the 6 city rotation no matter the date and then every January 1 invite the top two teams that feel they were screwed out of the playoffs .to the Rose Bowl game .. ie: BYU vs Notre Dame game.

Bottom line, Oregon fans will have to travel more times east of the Rockies no matter what if you want to win a natty. Like in 2024 when they asked Cignetti before his game against UCLA in the Rose Bowl as a regular season game ... "we don't care where we play, we can play it in a parking lot if they want to."