The first year of the 12-team College Football Playoff will kick off with a first-round game on Dec. 20 and conclude with the title game one month later in Atlanta.
The CFP announced its entire schedule Wednesday. The four first-round games will be on Dec. 20 and 21. ABC and ESPN will televise games on Friday and Saturday night with 7 p.m. CST kickoffs, while TNT will have the Dec. 21 day games at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
The day games will go up against two NFL games: Houston-Kansas City at noon and Baltimore-Pittsburgh at 3:30 p.m.
Mike Mulvihill, Fox president for insights and analytics, thinks there will be room to accommodate both audiences. Fox has the Ravens-Steelers game as it goes up against a CFP late afternoon matchup.
“I think it will be fine for the NFL and college football to coexist on that date. I think both events will rate just fine,” he said.
The four first-round matchups, which will be played on college campuses, will be announced on Dec. 8. TNT has two games through a sublicense with ESPN.
ESPN’s $7.8 billion deal with the CFP, which was announced in March, allowed it to sublicense games to other networks. Financial terms of the sublicense were not announced.
The quarterfinals, semifinals and championship game will air on ESPN.
The top four conference champions will receive first-round byes. The quarterfinals will begin on Dec. 31 with the Fiesta Bowl at 6:30 p.m. CST. New Year’s Day will kick off with the Peach Bowl at noon, followed by the Rose Bowl in its traditional 4 p.m. spot and the Sugar Bowl at 7:45 p.m.
The semifinals are the Orange Bowl on Jan. 9 and Cotton Bowl on Jan. 10. Both have 6:30 p.m. CST start times before the championship game takes place on Jan. 20 in Atlanta.
ESPN will announce its schedule for most of the bowl games Thursday.
