ATLANTA – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The first 12-team edition of the College Football Playoff will begin on Dec. 20 and end exactly one month later, with the national championship game set to be played in Atlanta, it was announced Wednesday.
The expanded playoff format will start with four first-round games played at campus sites on Dec. 20 and Dec. 21. Two of those games will be broadcast on TNT, which has a sublicense with ESPN.
The quarterfinals begin on New Year’s Eve with the Fiesta Bowl at 7:30 p.m. ET, followed by a trio of games on New Year’s Day. The Peach Bowl will begin at 1 p.m., the Rose Bowl at 5 p.m. and the Sugar Bowl at 8:45 p.m.
Both semifinals will start at 7:30 p.m. The first, the Orange Bowl, will be played on Jan. 9, and the second, the Cotton Bowl, will take place on Jan. 10.
The championship game is set for 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 20 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.