Overview
- The College Football Playoff, ESPN and TNT announced the full 2026–27 schedule on Monday, confirming first-round campus games on Dec. 18–19, quarterfinals on Dec. 30 and Jan. 1, semifinals on Jan. 14–15 and the national title on Jan. 25 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
- ESPN’s expanded rights package sublicensed five games to TNT and truTV, including a TNT-broadcast semifinal for the first time, while several games will be simulcast on ABC and ESPN-network telecasts will stream on the ESPN App.
- Selection Day on Dec. 6 will assign campus sites for first-round games and place the Peach, Cotton and Rose bowls into the three Jan. 1 time windows, leaving open the possibility that the Rose Bowl could move into a primetime slot.
- The playoff will remain a 12-team field for 2026–27 but debate over larger brackets continues, with reporting that the American Football Coaches Association supported a 24-team model and conferences split on preferred expansion plans.
- Broadcasters point to rising demand—an 11-game playoff average of 16.3 million viewers and a 30.1 million national title audience—as the reason for the new rights split, a change that could deepen scheduling tensions with the NFL and affect team preparation because of long breaks between rounds.