College Football Playoff releases schedule for first 12-team playoff

The schedule for the first 12-team College Football Playoff is official.

The CFP announced the dates and times for all 11 games of the expanded playoff format on Wednesday, with the first game set for Friday, Dec. 20, a month before the national championship game on Monday, Jan. 20.

The four first-round games will be played on December 20 and 21. The first game begins on Friday at 8 p.m. ET, and the other three games will take place on Saturday. TNT Sports will broadcast the first two games on Saturday at noon and 4 p.m. ET, while ABC will broadcast the primetime game at 8 p.m. ET along with the Friday game.

The remaining games will be broadcast on ESPN. The first quarterfinal will be on Tuesday, December 31st at 7:30 p.m. ET at the Fiesta Bowl. Three quarterfinal games will be played on New Year's Day. The first game is the Peach Bowl at 1 p.m., followed by the Rose Bowl, traditionally played on January 1st at 5 p.m., and the Sugar Bowl at 8:45 p.m. ET.

The semifinals this year will be held at the Orange Bowl and the Cotton Bowl. The Orange Bowl will be held on Thursday, January 9th at 7:30 p.m. ET. The Cotton Bowl will be held the next day at the same time.

After a decade of four-team playoffs, college football officials have decided to expand the playoffs to 12 teams for the 2024 season. The top five conference champions in the CFP rankings will automatically qualify for the playoffs, while the remaining seven teams will be selected via the rankings.

The top four conference champions will receive the top four seeds and a bye to the quarterfinals, while teams ranked 5th through 8th will play quarterfinal games in their home stadiums. Conference champions will be seeded to the quarterfinals via long-standing conference affiliation, if possible, meaning the SEC champion will likely play in the Sugar Bowl and the Big Ten champion will likely play in the Rose Bowl.

The national championship game on Jan. 20 will be 12 days later than the national title game following the 2023 season. Michigan defeated Washington 34-13 to win the final four-team playoff on Jan. 8 after the semifinals were played on Jan. 1.