The College Football Playoff and ESPN have officially announced the start times for the 2015-16 New Year’s Six bowl games.
Sites of the two playoff semifinal games this season are the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic and the Capital One Orange Bowl. The two games will begin at 4 pm ET and 8 pm ET on Thursday, Dec. 31. The specific order of the semifinal games will be announced on Dec. 6.
The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, which will pit two at large teams, will precede the semifinal games at noon ET on New Year’s Eve.
On New Year’s Day, the Fiesta Bowl begins at 1 pm ET with another at large vs. at large matchup.
Next is the Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual at 5 pm ET. Since the Rose Bowl is not hosting a playoff semifinal this season, it will feature their traditional matchup of Big Ten vs. Pac-12.
The Allstate Sugar Bowl closes out New Year’s Day with an 8:30 pm ET start time. The game will feature teams from the Big 12 and the SEC.
The College Football Playoff National Championship will be played on Monday, Jan. 11 at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.
2015-16 College Football Bowl Schedule
I really like the playoff games better on New Years Day than New Years Eve.
it all have to do with which bowl game is being use for the playoffs
The big boys made a big mistake. They should have had the two semi final games on NYD.
They could have moved the Sugar Bowl to NYE when it was not a semi final game and left the Rose on NYD. Now most people have to work part of the day NYE and want to party NYE night.
The ratings will not be as good this year.
Mike, I agree with you. However, with the Rose Bowl not being part of the national playoff this year, it could not have remained on NYD along with the two playoff games. Something would have had to give. A playoff game would have had to start at 1 PM ET, the Rose Bowl and then the second playoff. The Rose Bowl cannot be played earlier in the day than it is now, because of the parade.
I think the playoffs should have been on Jan. 2 (Saturday). That would have worked out great. They could have stood by themselves.
I think the games should be on Jan 1 and Jan 2 every year(not NYE) and the National Championship should be on a Saturday. So much easier for travel and would get better ratings in my opinion.
I agree with Kyle. The semifinals should be played on Jan. 1 & Jan. 2 every year. Most people are at events on NYE. I also don’t like how two Fiesta Bowls (for example) might fall in the same year because one season they are played on Jan. 1 and the next season on Dec. 31 (happened in 2014 and I believe will happen again in 2016). I would move the current Jan. 2 bowls to NYE instead. Here is how it should go:
Dec. 31:
10am – (Taxslayer) Gator Bowl
1:30pm – Liberty Bowl
5pm – Alamo Bowl
8:30 – Cactus Bowl
Jan. 1:
10am – Citrus Bowl
1:30pm – Orange Bowl
5pm – Rose Bowl
8:30 – Sugar Bowl
Jan. 2
10am – Outback Bowl
1:30pm- Peach Bowl
5pm – Cotton Bowl
8:30pm – Fiesta Bowl
Just a few additional notes. Ideally, I would have put the Rose Bowl at 8:30 and Sugar at 5pm because of the time zones, but kept the Rose Bowl at 5pm for historical purposes. Also, there would need to be some switches (like switching the Cotton & Sugar or switching the Orange & Peach) so that the Cotton & Orange are played on the same day when they host the playoff semis. Lastly, the championship game cannot be played on a Saturday because of the NFL playoffs. They could possible be played on a Sunday night instead of Monday night, but that all could change should the NFL expand the playoffs.
The Rose and Sugar Bowl contracts with ESPN has them locked into 5 & 8:30 pm on New Year’s Day. These contracts were done before the playoff was finalized. These contracts run concurrent with the playoff contract for 12 years, so unless the Rose and Sugar are willing to move off New Year’s Day, which they’re not, you’re gonna have New Years Eve semifinals 2 out of every 3 years, so get used to it. There’s nothing the playoff can do unless the Rose and Sugar willingly move, which I highly doubt
For somone who has to work most of the day on NYE, i hate the way it is being done, but sad fact is the fans were never the ones considered in all this. It was all about the tv dollars.
So Mike, I’m sure u figured out a way to watch the Opening days of the NCAA Tournament, so I don’t get all the damn crying about this.
I Need Boise State Go to the V I Z I O Bowl In Glendale AZ U Of Phoenix AZ
why everybody thinks boise state is good but i want arizona to go to the fiesta bowl
Houston! Coogs!!
this is so stupid, people want to celebrate new years eve with friends and watch the games on new years day. you are all crazy, why wreck college football like this. you spend new years eve out partying and relax on nyd watching football all day. the only people that will be watching the games will be the four universities involved and not the whole football nation. you guys can certainly fix this with over 2 months to work on it and if you don’t, Don’t be surprised if the fans take it out on the bowls that won’t cooperate. people are tired of the bullshit with the government, wall street, and those ceo,s that control sports. Hell, we only get to see 2 0r 3 nfl games on sunday and usually not the teams we want to see. 2 0r 3 out of 32 teams ruins the fan base. if you miss a few games of your favorite team, you start to lose interest altogether. if you could follow your team on tv every week, YOU WOULD BUY BE MORE INTERESTED IN THE NFL, IN YOUR TEAM AND IN BUYING MERCHANDISE AND TICKETS. VIEWING RATES WOULD GO UP AS YOU INCREASE THE LOYALTY OF THE FANS IN ALL CITIES AND SOCIALLY CONNECT MORE PEOPLE TO PEOPLE CONVERSATION AND CREATE MORE STIMULUS FOR FANS TO GET TOGETHER. Please don.t ruin college football by putting playoff games on new years eve. Many of my friends would have other obligations, wives that say they can,t watch on nye, girlfriends that won.t put up with it and so so many people work that night. But Everybody knows that you can,t watch a game at a new years eve party even if you try as their is too much confusion and conversation and traveling and working. BUT EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT NEW YEARS DAY IS FOR WATCHING FOOTBALL SO PLEASE FIX THIS SO YOU WILL YOU HAVE A JOB TO DO NEXT YEAR INSTEAD OF LOSING IT BECAUSE OF ALL THE BACKLASH. YOU COULD HURT THE GAME FOR YEARS JUST LIKE BOXING DID. PEOPLE LIVE AND DIE FOR THIS SPORT AND IT,S PLACE OF PRIDE IN THEIR LIVES, DO NOT RUIN THIS. THANK YOU
We agree that the playoff games shouldn’t be on New Year’s Eve, but we don’t have any control over that. If you want to voice your opinion to them, contact the College Football Playoff directly here:
http://www.collegefootballplayoff.com/