NEW ORLEANS – The College Football Playoff (CFP) announced today that the members of the CFP Board of Managers have agreed to begin the newly-expanded 12-team playoff during the 2024-2025 season and that the Allstate Sugar Bowl® will serve as a CFP Quarterfinal in each of those seasons.
“We’re delighted to be moving forward,” said Bill Hancock, Executive Director of the College Football Playoff. “When the board expanded the playoff beginning in 2026 and asked the CFP Management Committee to examine the feasibility of starting the new format earlier, the Management Committee went right to work. More teams and more access mean more excitement for fans, alumni, students and student-athletes. We appreciate the leaders of the six bowl games and the two future national championship game host cities for their cooperation. Everyone realized that this change is in the best interest of college football and pulled together to make it happen.”
“The CFP announcement comes as good news for the Sugar Bowl, New Orleans and Louisiana,” said Jeff Hundley, Allstate Sugar Bowl CEO. “Simply put, this means the Allstate Sugar Bowl will carry national significance on an annual basis, and that should translate into a lot of positives for all involved.”
Next season will be the final season of the current four-team playoff format and the Allstate Sugar Bowl will serve as one of the two Playoff Semifinals on January 1, 2024. It will mark the fourth Playoff Semifinal for the Sugar Bowl.
In 2024, the first round of the expanded playoff will take place the week ending Saturday, December 21, at either the home field of the higher-seeded team or at another site designated by the higher-seeded institution (No. 12 at No. 5, No. 11 at No. 6, No. 10 at No. 7, and No. 9 at No. 8). The specific game dates, likely late in that week, will be announced later.
For the 2024 and 2025 seasons, the four quarterfinal games and two Playoff Semifinal games will be played in bowls on a rotating basis. The 2024 quarterfinals will take place in the Fiesta Bowl, Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl, while the Cotton Bowl and Orange Bowl will host the Playoff Semifinals. The 2025 quarterfinals will take place in the Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl, Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl, while the Fiesta Bowl and Peach Bowl will host the Playoff Semifinals. Specific dates for all quarterfinal and semifinal games will be announced at a later time.
The national championship games will be played January 20, 2025, in Atlanta, and January 19, 2026, in Miami.
This year’s Allstate Sugar Bowl will be played on Saturday, December 31 and will feature the champions of the Big 12 Conference and the SEC unless either or both of those champions are selected for the College Football Playoff. If either of the champions do qualify for the playoff, another highly-ranked representative from the conference(s) will play in the Allstate Sugar Bowl. In the case of the SEC, the replacement team would be the top-ranked non-playoff team. In the case of the Big 12, the replacement team would be the next non-playoff team with the best record in the regular-season standings.
{Courtesy: release from the Allstate Sugar Bowl}