College Football Playoff announces dates for future quarterfinal, semifinal rounds
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College Football Playoff quarterfinal and semifinal dates were revealed on Tuesday afternoon for the 2026 and 2027 seasons, and there is one big difference in those schedules that may cause some raised eyebrows.
As ESPN insider Pete Thamel pointed out in his social media post on Tuesday, there will be a “near two-week break between the quarterfinals and semifinals the next two years.”
For some recent context, in the just-completed 2025 season, the 4 quarterfinal College Football Playoff games were played on Dec. 31 (1 game) and Jan. 1 (3 games). Those quarterfinals were followed by the 2 semifinal showdowns on Jan. 8 and Jan. 9, so basically the semifinals were staged 1 week after the quarterfinals.
But that won’t be the case during the next 2 seasons, as the schedule now will give those 4 surviving semifinal teams some extra time in between their quarterfinal victories and semifinal showdowns.
For the 2026 season, there will be 1 quarterfinal game played on Dec. 30, 2026, followed by the other 3 quarterfinal matchups on New Year’s Day 2027. Then the new, extended gap will come before the semifinals, with those games not being played until Jan. 14 and Jan. 15, 2027.
The same type of breakdown will take place for the 2027 season, with 1 quarterfinal game on Dec. 31, 2027, and the other 3 quarterfinal showdowns on New Year’s Day 2028. The semifinal matchups for the 2027 season will then be held on Jan. 13 and Jan. 14, 2028.
Here is the full quarterfinal-semifinal breakdown for the next 2 seasons:
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
