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111-676: The College Football Playoff ( CFP ) is an annual postseason knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), the highest level of college football competition in the United States. It culminates in the College Football Playoff National Championship game. The inaugural tournament

222-610: A Group of Five conference has been selected. No teams with two or more losses have been selected. Note: Notre Dame was a member of the ACC in 2020 (Due to COVID-19 ). Cincinnati was a member of the American in 2021. In 2013, the television broadcast rights to all six CFP bowls and the National Championship were acquired by ESPN through the 2025–26 season. ESPN then reached 12-year agreements to retain rights to

333-512: A conflict of interest cannot be present, but can answer factual questions about the institution. All committee members have past ties to certain NCAA institutions, but the committee decided to ignore those ties in the recusal requirements. "We just boiled it down to where we felt this group was fit to its high integrity and would differentiate from those past relationships," Long said. Some football writers, like Dennis Dodd and Mark Schlabach , have said

444-420: A draw may be settled in extra time and eventually by a penalty shootout or by replaying the fixture. Another perceived disadvantage is that most competitors are eliminated after relatively few games. Variations such as the double-elimination tournament allow competitors a single loss while remaining eligible for overall victory. However, losing one game requires the competitor to win more games in order to win

555-521: A festival to tell the world about our paradise." In 1902, the annual festival was enhanced by adding an American football game. In 1926, leaders in Miami, Florida, decided to do the same with a "Fiesta of the American Tropics" that was centered around a New Year's Day football game. Although a second "Fiesta" was never held, Miami leaders, including Earnest E. Seiler, later revived the idea with

666-679: A given year will be the highest-ranked available team from the SEC, Big Ten, and Notre Dame, subject to several constraints: the SEC and Big Ten champions are always excluded, and when an SEC and/or Big Ten team qualifies for the College Football Playoff, the next available team would also be excluded from participating in the Orange Bowl due to contractual obligations with the Sugar Bowl and Rose Bowl, respectively. Also, should

777-454: A highest-ranked team create a rematch with the ACC team, the Orange Bowl has the option of passing over that team for the next-highest ranked team among the Big Ten, SEC, and Notre Dame, again subject to the noted constraints. Rankings are based on the College Football Playoff committee's rankings. ESPN holds the television rights for 12 years as well. Team rankings entering games for which

888-603: A local team, the University of Miami . In the first game, played on January 2, 1933, Miami defeated Manhattan College 7–0. In the second game, played on New Year's Day 1934, Duquesne defeated Miami 33–7. Duquesne was coached by Elmer Layden , one of the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame . These games are not recognized as bowl games by the NCAA because one team was guaranteed a berth regardless of record. However, following

999-456: A match between the losers of the semifinal matches called third place playoffs , the winner therein placing third and the loser fourth. Many Olympic single-elimination tournaments feature the bronze medal match if they do not award bronze medals to both losing semifinalists. The FIFA World Cup has long featured the third place match (since 1934 ), though the UEFA Euro has not held one since

1110-474: A nine-game conference schedule. However, the league opted to stay with the eight-plus-Notre Dame model, stipulating instead that teams would have to play one Power Five school in their non-league slates beginning in 2017, which would include the Notre Dame game or other ACC schools, as will games against another FBS independent , BYU . Despite the push to increase schedule strength, some ACC coaches preferred

1221-500: A possible match-up with the top seed until one round later. MLS' format is identical, except that the conference quarterfinals is a best-of-three series. In some situations, a seeding restriction may be implemented; from 1975 until 1989 in the NFL , and from 1994 until 2011 in MLB there was a rule where at the conference or league semifinal, should the top seed and last seed (wild card) be from

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1332-437: A quarter-final from the previous year . Sometimes the remaining competitors in a single-elimination tournament will be "re-seeded" so that the highest surviving seed is made to play the lowest surviving seed in the next round, the second-highest plays the second-lowest, etc. This may be done after each round, or only at selected intervals. In American team sports, for example, the NFL employs this tactic, but MLS , NHL and

1443-457: A random factor is always present in a real-world competition, this might easily cause accusations of unfairness. Variations of the single-elimination tournament include: Other common tournament types include: Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game that has been played annually in the Miami metropolitan area since January 1, 1935 . Along with

1554-512: A return of the game to broadcast television for the first time since 2010 . The inaugural College Football Playoff games in January 2015 generated larger ratings than previous BCS games. The 2015 College Football Playoff National Championship had an 18.9 Nielsen rating and was watched by approximately 33.4 million people, the largest broadcast audience of all time on American cable television (non- broadcast ), according to AdWeek . That

1665-458: A rotation" of members. The 2024-25 CFP selection committee members are: The committee members include one current athletic director from each of the five "major" conferences— ACC , Big Ten , Big 12 , Pac-12 , and SEC —also known as the Power Five conferences . Other members are former coaches, players, athletic directors, and administrators, plus a retired member of the media. The goal

1776-466: A selection from those proposals, in a similar fashion to other large sporting events, such as the NCAA Final Four . Officials say the championship game will be held in a different city each year, and that bids must propose host stadiums with a capacity of at least 65,000 spectators. Under the system, cities cannot host both a semifinal game and the title game in the same year. In practice, since

1887-577: A six-year extension, valued at $ 1.3 billion per year. This deal will see ESPN add the four new first-round playoff games, of which ESPN has sublicensed two to TNT Sports and will simulcast the two others on ABC . ESPN will continue to be the home for the New Year's Six bowls and the National Championship Game. In addition, as part of this deal, beginning in 2026–27, ESPN will simulcast the National Championship Game on ABC , marking

1998-573: A stand-alone event, hosted by the local bowl organization about one week following the New Year's Day bowl games (including the Orange Bowl). Under that format, the Orange Bowl Committee hosted two separate games in both 2009 (the 2009 Orange Bowl on January 1 and the 2009 BCS National Championship Game on January 8) and in 2013 (the 2013 Orange Bowl on January 1 and the 2013 BCS National Championship Game on January 7), all at

2109-468: A three-year cycle with the following pairings: Rose/Sugar, Orange/Cotton, and Fiesta/Peach. The College Football Playoff National Championship is then played a week later at a separately determined neutral site. From the beginning of the CFP, many within college football wanted a playoff larger than four teams. The four team playoff seems to have been arrived at through a combination of concerns such as keeping

2220-695: Is 1 v 8, 2 v 7, 3 v 6 and 4 v 5, for example this is used for 16 seeds in the World Snooker Championship and 32 seeds in the World Darts Championship . Some tournaments stray from this, for example it is not the procedure that is followed in most tennis tournaments, where the 1 and 2 seeds are placed in separate brackets, but then the 3 and 4 seeds are assigned to their brackets randomly, and so too are seeds 5 through 8, and so on. This may result in some brackets consisting of stronger players than other brackets, and since only

2331-533: Is first - for example, if sorting the numbers 1-4 ascending, if 4 and 3 meet in the first round, 3 and 1 will lose in the first round and 2 will lose in the second, selecting 4 as the largest number in the set, but insufficient comparisons have been performed to determine which is greater, 1 or 3. Despite this, the candidate that loses in the final round is commonly considered to have taken second place (in this case, 2). When matches are held to determine places or prizes lower than first and second, these typically include

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2442-607: Is one of the most pertinent considerations for the committee in making its selections. Other factors that the committee weighs are conference championships, team records, and head-to-head results, plus other points such as injuries and weather. Unlike the BCS system, the AP Poll , Coaches' Poll , and the Harris Poll , computer rankings are not used to make the selections. Advanced statistics and metrics are expected to be submitted to

2553-461: Is rare in English itself, with noticeable use in American debate tournaments. The round before the round of sixteen is sometimes called round of thirty-two in English. Terms for this in other languages generally translate as "sixteenth final". Earlier rounds are typically numbered counting forwards from the first round, or by the number of remaining competitors. If some competitors get a bye ,

2664-590: Is the current rightsholder of the Orange Bowl, a relationship that began in 2011 as part of the contract to broadcast the Bowl Championship Series games. In anticipation of the transition to the College Football Playoff in the 2014–15 season, ESPN reached a new deal with the game's organizers in November 2012 to extend its rights through 2026, paying $ 55 million yearly. The game is also broadcast nationally by ESPN Radio . Prior to that, Fox held

2775-492: Is the legal entity which owns all CFP trademarks. CFP Administration, LLC is the legal entity that administers the College Football Playoff. From its formation in 2014 to the end of the 2023 season , the College Football Playoff used a four-team knockout bracket to determine the national champion. Six bowl games —the Rose Bowl , Sugar Bowl , Orange Bowl , Cotton Bowl , Fiesta Bowl , and Peach Bowl – rotated as hosts for

2886-415: The 1936 game with 30 floats at an expense of $ 40,000 ($ 878,273 in 2023). An Orange Bowl Queen and court of Princesses was selected from young women who were residents of Florida. A coronation ball was held the beginning of the month of December before the game, and the queen and princesses would ride on a float during the parade on New Years Day and preside over the half-time show at the game. Babs Beckwith

2997-421: The 1980 edition . Sometimes, contests are also held among the losers of the quarterfinal matches to determine fifth to eighth places. In one scenario, two "consolation semifinal" matches may be conducted, with the winners of these then facing off to determine fifth and sixth places and the losers playing for seventh and eighth; those are used often in qualifying tournaments where only the top five teams advance to

3108-482: The Bowl Coalition ( 1992 – 1994 ) and then Bowl Alliance ( 1995 – 1997 ) clumsy and incomplete at best. By 1997, public pressure from fans, coaches, and commentators for a true playoff of some kind had grown too great to ignore. The Bowl Championship Series in 1998 succeeded in finally bringing all major conferences and bowl games into the fold for a combined BCS National Championship Game rotated amongst

3219-742: The College Football Playoff National Championship Trophy . Playoff officials commissioned a new trophy that was unconnected with the previous championship systems, such as the AFCA "crystal football" trophy which had been regularly presented after the championship game since the 1990s (as the AFCA was contractually obligated to name the BCS champion as the Coaches Poll champion). However, BCS Properties, LLC

3330-523: The NBA do not (and neither does the NCAA college basketball tournament ). Although MLB does have enough teams (12) in its playoff tournament where re-seeding would have made a large difference in the matchups; only the WNBA's at the minimum, which is at least four from each conference for a total of 8. The NBA's format calls for the winner of the first-round series between the first and eighth seeds (within each of

3441-650: The NCAA basketball tournament selection process and the entire process is facilitated through custom software developed by Code Authority in Frisco, Texas. From a large initial pool of teams, the group takes numerous votes on successive tiers of teams, considering six at a time and coming to a consensus on how they should be ranked, then repeating the process with the next tier of teams. Discussion and debate happens at each voting step. All votes are by secret ballot, and committee members do not make their ballots public. Each week's ranking process begins anew, with no weight given to

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3552-515: The Rose Bowl , Sugar Bowl , Orange Bowl , Cotton Bowl , Peach Bowl , and Fiesta Bowl . These games are played annually on or around New Year's Day and represent six of the oldest and most prestigious college football bowl games . During the 4-team playoff era, the bowls rotated on a 3-year cycle. Two of the six bowls served as the CFP semifinals for any given year with the following pairings: Rose/Sugar, Orange/Cotton, and Fiesta/Peach. The year's four off-cycle bowls hosted bowl games outside of

3663-492: The Southeastern Conference (SEC) that year and in future years and gave a glimpse at what post-season football might look like. Other conferences would follow suit over the next decade. FBS schools also began making changes to bowl games themselves in the 1990s to increase the likelihood of having the top two ranked teams play each other. However, existing bowl tie-ins with conferences made arrangements such as

3774-651: The Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl , it is one of the oldest bowl games in the country behind only the Rose Bowl , which was first played in 1902 and has been played annually since 1916. The Orange Bowl was originally held in the city of Miami at Miami Field before moving to the Miami Orange Bowl stadium in 1938. In 1996, it moved to its current location at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens ,

3885-580: The "Palm Festival" (with the slogan "Have a Green Christmas in Miami"). In 1932, George E. Hussey, official greeter of Miami, organized the first Festival of Palms Bowl , a predecessor of the Orange Bowl. With Miami suffering from both the Great Depression and the preceding Florida land bust, Hussey and other Miamians sought to help its economy by organizing a game similar to Pasadena's Rose Bowl . Two games were played in this series at Moore Park in Miami, both pitting an invited opponent against

3996-548: The 2006 season, the Orange Bowl has been exclusively tied with the ACC and has used the brand Home of the ACC Champion . As one of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) bowl games, the site of the Orange Bowl also hosted the national championship game one week after the Orange Bowl game; it did so on a four-year rotating basis with the other three BCS games (the others being the Sugar , Fiesta , and Rose Bowls ). The tie-in with

4107-662: The ACC Champion . In the 1990s, the Orange Bowl was a member of the Bowl Coalition , but kept its Big Eight tie-in. It was later a member of the Bowl Alliance . From 1998 to 2013, the Orange Bowl was a member of the now-defunct Bowl Championship Series (BCS). The Orange Bowl served as the BCS National Championship Game in 2001 and 2005. However, beginning with the 2006 season, the BCS National Championship Game became

4218-473: The ACC continued with the inception of the College Football Playoff after the 2014 season. It hosts the ACC champion in the years that it is not a national semifinal, unless the ACC champion is selected for the College Football Playoff. From 1936 to 2001 (except for the World War II years), the Orange Bowl Committee also sponsored a parade. The very first King Orange Jamboree Parade was held the day before

4329-567: The ACC, Pac-12, and Big Ten dissolved, and along with it resistance to playoff expansion. The CFP Board of Managers unanimously voted to expand the playoffs to 12 teams, with the earliest possible change happening in the 2024 season. Conferences and bowls negotiated early expansion for several months during the fall of 2022. A potential sticking point was the Rose Bowl, which desired to keep its traditional 5:00 p.m. ET/2:00 p.m. PT kickoff on New Year's Day or January 2, even during years it will host

4440-602: The AP (sportswriters) Poll waited until after the bowl games were completed to declare its national champion. The other major poll, UPI (Coaches) began doing so in 1974. This evolution led the FBS annual "national champion" open to considerable debate and controversy. At times in the past, particularly during the polling era from 1936 to 1997, the term " mythical national championship " was frequently used, and larger programs have often unilaterally declared themselves national champions. While

4551-463: The BCS rankings leaving USC , No. 1 in both major polls, out of the Sugar Bowl . This controversy ultimately led to the AP Poll withdrawing from the BCS, and additional fine-tuning of the BCS formula. After that, the controversies lessened, but the BCS approach itself had lost the confidence of many within the college football world, and ultimately the pressure for more change led to the development of

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4662-540: The Big Eight. Opponents of the Big Eight varied; but were often major independents, runners-up in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), or champions of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Since 2007, the Orange Bowl has hosted the ACC champion—unless they are involved in the national championship playoff, in which case another high-ranking ACC team takes their place —and has used the brand Home of

4773-553: The CFP rejected the playoff proposal that had seemed to have already won approval, largely through resistance of the Atlantic Coast Conference This pushed implementation of any changes to the playoff pool to no sooner than the 2026 season. However, that decision was reversed on September 2, 2022, following the announcement by USC and UCLA that they were leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten. The "alliance" between

4884-447: The CFP tournament bracket. In the 12-team playoff format, four of the six bowls host quarterfinal games on or around New Year's Day (which are determined in the above pairings on a 3-year cycle). The winners advance to play in the semifinals, held in the two remaining bowls one week later. The bowls will again cycle on a rotating basis. Cities around the country bid to host each year's championship game . The playoff group's leaders make

4995-453: The College Football Playoff. In 2014, the College Football Playoff made its debut, facilitating a multi-game single-elimination tournament for the first time in college football history. Four teams are seeded by a 13-member selection committee rather than by existing polls or mathematical rankings. The Cotton and Peach bowls were also brought into the fold. The two semifinal games became rotated among these New Year's Six bowl games, set on

5106-629: The December 2023 edition (90 games, 180 total appearances). ‡ USC's win–loss record and winning percentage exclude their vacated 2005 win. Won (11): Bucknell , Catholic , Duquesne , Louisville , Rice , Santa Clara , Stanford , Tulsa , Washington , West Virginia , Wisconsin Lost (14): Baylor , Boston College , Cincinnati , Georgetown , Holy Cross , Kentucky , Michigan State , Navy , North Carolina , Northern Illinois , Ole Miss , TCU , Virginia , Wake Forest Updated through

5217-582: The December 2023 edition (90 games, 180 total appearances). ‡ The Pac-12's win–loss record and winning percentage exclude USC's vacated 2005 win. Source: The game was previously officially known as the Discover Orange Bowl , since Discover Financial was announced as title sponsor on August 26, 2010, as part of a new four-year agreement. The game had been called the FedEx Orange Bowl from 1989 to 2010, as FedEx sponsored

5328-426: The NCAA does not organize or award an official national championship for FBS football (instead merely recognizing the decisions made by any of a number of independent major championship selectors ), the CFP's inception in 2014 marked the first time a major national championship selector in college football was able to determine their champion by using a bracket competition . A 13-member committee has selected and seeded

5439-408: The NCAA has never officially endorsed a championship team, it has documented the choices of some selectors in its official NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Records publication. In addition, various analysts have independently published their own choices for each season. These opinions can often diverge with others as well as individual schools' claims to national titles, which may or may not correlate to

5550-572: The Orange Bowl was designated a CFP semifinal are taken from CFP rankings. Otherwise, rankings are taken from the AP Poll (inaugurated in 1936 ), before each game was played. Source: The bowl first named an MVP in 1965. From 1970 through 1998, two MVPs were named for each game. Since 1999, only a single MVP is named, except when the game is part of the College Football Playoff , in which case both an offensive and defensive MVP are named. † CFP semifinal Updated through

5661-521: The Orange Bowl, so if the ACC champion qualifies for the playoffs in a year when the Orange Bowl is not a semifinal host, the next-highest ranked ACC team will play in the Orange Bowl. For the secondary tie-ins, the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the Big Ten Conference are guaranteed three appearances each, and the University of Notre Dame can play in a maximum of two games, but is not guaranteed any appearances. The ACC team's opponent in

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5772-428: The Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, and Sugar Bowl following the dissolution of the Bowl Championship Series. In November of that year, ESPN reached a 12-year deal to broadcast the remaining three bowls, the championship game, as well as shoulder programming such as ranking shows. As a whole, the contract is valued at around $ 470 million per year, or nearly $ 5.7 billion for the life of the contract. On March 19, 2024, ESPN reached

5883-616: The Texas vs. Alabama Orange Bowl was the first college bowl game to be televised live in prime time . From 1954 onwards, the game usually featured the champion of the former Big Eight Conference . When the Big Eight Conference merged with four members of the defunct Southwest Conference in 1996, the newly formed Big 12 Conference moved its conference champion tie-in to the Fiesta Bowl . From 1998 to 2013, however, with

5994-551: The University Division, smaller ones in the College Division. In 1973, the NCAA created Division I out of the University Division, and Divisions II and III out of the College Division for smaller programs with scholarships (Div II) and without scholarships (Div III). In 1978, Division I was sub-divided into I-A (largest programs) and I-AA, which would later be renamed FBS (I-A) and FCS (I-AA) respectively. As

6105-659: The added strength-of-schedule we were seeking". In 2014, the first year of the College Football Playoff, one team (Georgia) played two opponents from the Power Five, nine of the 14 teams played one Power Five conference opponent and three lower-level opponents (including one FCS school), and four teams did not face a Power Five foe. In the spring of 2015, the SEC decided to count games played against Independents BYU and Army toward its Power Five requirement. The ACC, whose teams also play eight conference games (plus Notre Dame at least once every three years), also considered moving to

6216-458: The committee will look at is strength of schedule," said selector Oliver Luck . Teams in the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 play nine conference games on their twelve-game schedules and thus only have flexibility in choosing their opponents for the three non-league games. Some programs are opting to increase their schedule strength by scheduling high-profile matchups at neutral sites and on weeknights, garnering primetime TV exclusivity. In response to

6327-421: The committee, though like other analytics, they have no formal role in the decision. Committee members are not required to attend games. Long said the panel considered less frequent rankings, but ultimately decided on a weekly release. "That's what the fans have become accustomed to, and we felt it would leave a void in college football without a ranking for several weeks," he said. Long also noted: "Early on there

6438-453: The competition, seeding is often used to prevent this. Brackets are set up so that the top two seeds could not possibly meet until the final round (should both advance that far), none of the top four can meet prior to the semifinals, and so on. If no seeding is used, the tournament is called a random knockout tournament. Standard seeding pairs the highest and lowest, then second highest and second lowest and so on, for an 8 seed tournament this

6549-564: The creation of the Bowl Championship Series system, team selection for the Orange Bowl was tied into the other three BCS Bowls and (from 2006 to 2013) the BCS National Championship Game . From 1998 to 2005, the game hosted the champion of either the ACC or Big East conferences, unless they were invited to the National Championship game, or if the Orange Bowl itself was hosting the national championship matchup. Starting with

6660-412: The end of 11 different seasons since then; this situation is referred to as a "split" national championship . As the years passed, public pressure for a playoff grew, especially following seasons in which there were split national championships in the polls. By the 1990s, the sport underwent several changes that led to a playoff. The 1992 SEC Championship Game was an enormous risk that paid off well for

6771-399: The event during that period. Starting with the 2010–11 season, ESPN carried the Orange Bowl, replacing Fox after four seasons. ABC aired the game from 1999 to 2006, with CBS (1995–1998) and NBC (1964–1994) previously carrying the game. Discover stated that they would not renew their sponsorship of the game further on June 9, 2014; the game will be a part of the College Football Playoff in

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6882-436: The final committee members. The selection of Condoleezza Rice , a former U.S. Secretary of State and Stanford University provost , was met with some backlash within the sport and the media. Critics questioned her qualifications, citing gender and lack of football experience. The committee releases its top 25 rankings weekly on Tuesdays in the second half of the regular season. The top four teams are seeded in that order for

6993-451: The first rotation led to games originally planned for New Year's Eve be moved to as early as December 27 in some years. The selection committee seeded the top four teams, and also assigned teams to the at-large bowls (Cotton, Fiesta, and Peach) in years when they did not host semifinals. The four-team format pitted the No. 1-ranked team against No. 4 and No. 2 against No. 3. The seeding determined

7104-481: The first time, a first round of playoffs separated from bowl games. The first round will consist of seeds 5 through 12 playing one another at the home stadium of the better seeded teams, or another venue of their choice. Then, the quarter-final and semi-final games will consist of the New Year's Six bowl games, with a national championship game after that. From 2014 through 2023, the two semifinal games rotated among

7215-447: The four largest, most profitable bowl games - Fiesta, Orange, Rose, and Sugar. BCS rankings originally incorporated the two major polls as well as a number of computer ranking systems to determine the two best teams at the end of the season. Although the BCS era did regularly produce compelling matchups, the winnowing selection of the top two teams resulted in many BCS controversies , most notably 2003's split national championship caused by

7326-625: The future, and CFP rightsholder ESPN has asked for higher sponsorship fees, in return. On September 22, 2014, Capital One was announced as the new title sponsor of the Orange Bowl, transferring their bowl game sponsorship from the Citrus Bowl . Subsequently, the company's "Capital One Mascot Challenge" winner naming ceremony also moved to the Orange Bowl. The Orange Bowl Committee includes Corporate Members such as iHeart Media, Ernst & Young, Cinch Home Services, Bank of America, Amazon, American Airlines, AT&T, and Uber Technologies. ESPN

7437-485: The home football field for both the University of Miami and Miami Dolphins . Since December 2014, the game has been sponsored by Capital One and officially known as the Capital One Orange Bowl . Previous sponsors include Discover Financial (2011–January 2014) and Federal Express/FedEx (1989–2010). In its early years, the Orange Bowl had no defined conference tie-ins; it often pitted a team from

7548-466: The inaugural CFP national championship game every title game up to and including the 2025 season has been played (or is scheduled to be played) in a stadium hosting at least one National Football League team, and has been played indoors and/or in a warm-weather city. The College Football Playoff Selection Committee consists of 13 members who generally serve three-year terms, although some initial 2013 selections served two- and four-year terms "to achieve

7659-408: The increased emphasis on strength of schedule, teams have considered playing more challenging opponents during the non-conference portion of their schedules. Some teams have traditionally played three or four "weak" non-conference opponents, but wins against such low-level competition are unlikely to impress the committee. For teams on the cusp of making the playoff four, "I think one of the first things

7770-509: The new playoff system, the Southeastern Conference considered increasing its conference schedule from eight to nine games, with Alabama coach Nick Saban a vocal proponent. According to Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News , "The prevailing opinion among SEC athletics directors: The SEC is difficult enough that there's no need for a ninth game." Some in the conference, like Mississippi State athletic director Scott Stricklin , expressed

7881-399: The next round; or some method of ranking the four quarterfinal losers might be employed, in which case only one round of additional matches would be held among them, the two highest-ranked therein then playing for fifth and sixth places and the two lowest for seventh and eighth. The number of distinct ways of arranging a single-elimination tournament (as an abstract structure, prior to seeding

7992-475: The opinion that a nine-game SEC schedule would result in more teams with two losses. Commissioner Michael Slive and Vanderbilt AD David Williams, among others, supported a stronger out-of-league schedule, which would likely impress the committee. In April 2014, the league voted to mandate that all SEC teams must play a Power Five foe (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, or independent Notre Dame) in its non-conference slate beginning in 2016. Slive noted this rule "gives us

8103-414: The opportunity to face every other player/team. Also, if the competitors' performance is variable, that is, it depends on a small, varying factor in addition to the actual strength of the competitors, then not only will it become less likely that the strongest competitor actually wins the tournament, in addition the seeding done by the tournament organizers will play a major part in deciding the winner. As

8214-491: The other New Year's Six bowls. Traditional conference tie-ins prior to 2024 will still try to be respected for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, but are no longer obligated to be met. In 1890, Pasadena, California , held its first Tournament of Roses Parade to showcase the city's mild weather compared to the harsh winters in northern cities. As one of the organizers said: "In New York, people are buried in snow. Here, our flowers are blooming and our oranges are about to bear. Let's hold

8325-604: The other. If a small number of teams play in a single elimination tournament, sometimes a consolation bracket is included to allow the eliminated teams to play more than once. This was the format of the Little League World Series until 1992. The format is less suited to games where draws are frequent. In chess , each fixture in a single-elimination tournament must be played over multiple matches, because draws are common , and because white has an advantage over black. In association football , games ending in

8436-587: The players into the tournament) is given by the Wedderburn–Etherington numbers . Thus, for instance, there are three different arrangements for five players: However, the number of arrangements grows quickly for larger numbers of players and not all of them are commonly used. Opponents may be allocated randomly (such as in the FA Cup); however, since the "luck of the draw" may result in the highest-rated competitors being scheduled to face each other early in

8547-511: The playoff folks are going to try to do both." Addressing the "pecking order" nature of traditional polls, George Schrodeder of USA Today wrote that "if it actually works as intended, we could see volatile swings" from week to week, with lower-ranked teams moving ahead of higher-ranked teams without either team losing (a rarity in traditional polls). Both Long and Bill Hancock, the CFP executive director, say they expect that to happen. The committee's voting method uses multiple ballots, similar to

8658-530: The playoff. During the season, the committee meets and releases rankings six or seven times, depending on the length of the season (the number of games is consistent, but the number of weeks those games are played over can vary from year to year). The group, which meets at the Gaylord Texan hotel in Grapevine, Texas , reportedly meets in person up to 10 total times a year. A team's strength of schedule

8769-420: The previous week's selections. In this fashion, the committee selects the four teams to compete for the national championship. Committee members who are currently employed or financially compensated by a school, or have family members who have a current financial relationship (which includes football players), are not allowed to vote for that school. During deliberations about a team's selection, members with such

8880-466: The recusal arrangement isn't transparent or objective, suggesting that members' alma maters and former coaching jobs should be considered disqualifying conflicts of interest. College football is arguably the oldest organized sport in the United States. It is substantially older than its professional counterpart, the NFL, and its earliest game, in 1869, was occurring at almost the same time professional baseball

8991-571: The regular season (or did not take place, in some cases). In international fencing competitions, it is common to have a group stage . Participants are divided in groups of 6–7 fencers who play a round-robin tournament, and a ranking is calculated from the consolidated group results. Single elimination is seeded from this ranking. The single-elimination format enables a relatively large number of competitors to participate. There are no "dead" matches (perhaps excluding "classification" matches), and no matches where one competitor has more to play for than

9102-415: The regular season meaningful, balancing academic schedules, and fear of eroding public support for bowl games. Several years of the 4-team playoff led to growing calls for expansion. In June 2021, the CFP announced that it would begin studying an expansion to a 12-team playoff. The CFP stated that the starting time of any new format would only be determined after it had been approved. On February 18, 2022,

9213-446: The round at which they enter may be named the first round , with the earlier matches called a preliminary round , qualifying round , opening round , or the play-in games . Examples of the diverse names given to concurrent rounds in various select disciplines: Notes: The knockout round of the 2002 FIFA World Cup tournament: Without any additional matches, the only position a single-elimination tournament can reliably determine

9324-520: The round in which only eight competitors remain is generally called (with or without hyphenation) the quarter-final round; this is followed by the semi-final round, in which only four are left, the two winners of which then meet in the final or championship round . The round before the quarterfinals has multiple designations. Often it is called the round of sixteen , last sixteen , or (in South Asia) pre-quarterfinals . In many other languages

9435-529: The same day; with the expansion of the CFP in 2024, they will be played on back-to-back days. The College Football Playoff National Championship game is then played on the first Monday that is six or more days after the Semifinals. The venue of the championship game is then selected based on bids submitted by cities, similar to the NCAA Final Four . The winner of the Championship Game is awarded

9546-399: The same division, they cannot play each other; in that case, the top seed plays the worst division champion; the second-best division champion plays the wild card team. This is due to the scheduling employed for the regular season, in which a team faces any given divisional opponent more often than any given non-divisional opponent – the tournament favors match-ups that took place fewer times in

9657-456: The same venue. The BCS ended after the 2013 season, being replaced by the current College Football Playoff (CFP). The Orange Bowl has served as one of the New Year's Six bowl games in the CFP since the 2014 season. The Orange Bowl hosted a national semifinal following the 2015, 2018, and 2021 seasons. With the expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams in 2024, the Orange Bowl will become an annual feature of that playoff, along with

9768-761: The scheduling flexibility available with fewer permanent fixtures on a team's slate. Opinion was split among league athletic directors on moving to a nine-game schedule prior to the vote. An SEC expansion to a nine-game schedule would limit the ACC's opportunities to play Power Five non-conference opponents. To date, 32 of the 40 teams selected for the College Football Playoff have been undefeated or 1-loss conference champions from Power Five conferences . Three 1-loss Power Five teams have been selected without playing in their conference championship game, and three others have been selected after losing their respective conference championship games. One undefeated independent team has been selected, and one undefeated conference champion from

9879-556: The selections published elsewhere. Among the most widely recognized national champion selectors has been the Associated Press (AP), which has conducted the AP Poll of sportswriters since the 1936 season. ( see also : List of AP Poll national champions ). The AP's main competition, United Press International (UPI), created the first Coaches Poll in 1950. ( see also : List of Coaches' Poll national champions ). The two polls have picked different final national poll leaders at

9990-422: The semifinal bowl game assigned to each matchup; the No. 1 seed chose its bowl game to prevent it from playing in a "road" environment. There were no limits on the number of teams per conference, a change from previous BCS rules. However, some non-semifinal bowl selections still maintain their conference tie-ins, similarly to the BCS's automatic qualifier berths. A team from one of the "Group of Five" conferences

10101-452: The semifinals instead of the quarterfinals. The problem was resolved when the commissioners gave the Rose Bowl an ultimatum to accept no special treatment or be excluded from the new playoffs, with the bowl agreeing to forgo its demands. By the end of 2022, a new 12-team format was approved to be implemented for the 2024 season. Originally, the expanded playoff was to include the top six ranked conference champions and six at-large bids, though it

10212-536: The semifinals. The rotation was set on a three-year cycle with the following pairings: Rose/Sugar, Orange/Cotton, and Fiesta/Peach. The two semifinal bowls and the other four top-tier bowls were marketed as the New Year's Six . Per contract, the Rose and Sugar Bowls were always on New Year's Day . Originally three games were held on New Year's Eve with the other three on New Year's Day. However, disappointing TV ratings in

10323-479: The six New Year's Day bowl games: the Cotton Bowl , Fiesta Bowl , Orange Bowl , Peach Bowl , Rose Bowl , and Sugar Bowl . In addition to the teams selected for the playoff, from 2014 to 2023 the final CFP rankings were used in determining the participants for the four New Year's Six bowls that were not hosting the semifinals that year. Under the original four-team format, the two semifinal games were played on

10434-476: The smaller divisions and FCS subdivision were created, the NCAA organized post-season playoffs for them. However, FBS programs resisted making any changes to how its post-season was organized. This was because of the popularity and profitability of bowl games, which had become major TV events in the decades following World War II. Bowl games, which for many years were only exhibition games, became so popular and important within college football that, starting in 1965,

10545-472: The southeastern part of the country against a team from the central or northeastern states. From the 1950s until the mid-1990s, the Orange Bowl had a strong relationship with the Big Eight Conference . The champion (or runner-up in years in which the "no-repeat" rule was invoked) was invited to the bowl game in most years during this time; the 1979 Orange Bowl even had two representatives from

10656-568: The success of these games, backers organized another game for New Year's Day 1935 under the Orange Bowl name. This game, unlike the Palm Festival Games, did not automatically grant a berth to one team, although the University of Miami was again a participant. For this reason, the 1935 Orange Bowl was later recognized by the NCAA as an official bowl game. The Orange Bowl was played at Miami Field (located where Miami Orange Bowl

10767-450: The teams to take part in the CFP. This system differs from the use of polls or computer rankings that had previously been used to select the participants for the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), the title system used in FBS from 1998 to 2013. The CFP format used from 2014 to 2023 was a four-team single-elimination tournament, with participants determined and seeded by the selection committee. The current 12-team CFP format will feature, for

10878-1060: The term for these eight matches translates to eighth-final (e.g., in these European languages: "huitième de finale" in French , "achtste finale" in Dutch, octavos de final in Spanish , Achtelfinale in German , åttondelsfinal in Swedish , ottavi di finale in Italian , oitavos-de-final in Portuguese , optimi de finală in Romanian , osmifinále in Czech , osemfinále in Slovak , and osmina finala in Serbo-Croatian ), though this term

10989-476: The top 32 players of 128 are seeded in Tennis Grand Slam tournaments, it can happen that the 33rd-best player in a 128-player field could end up playing the top seed in the first round. An example of this occurring was when World No. 33 Florian Mayer was drawn against, and defeated by, World No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the first round of the 2013 Wimbledon Championships , in what was also a rematch of

11100-470: The tournament. In a single-elimination tournament without any seeding, awarding the second place to the loser of the final is unjustified: any of the competitors knocked out before getting to play the losing finalist might have been stronger than the actual losing finalist. In general, it is only fair to use a single-elimination tournament to determine first place. To fairly determine lower places requires some form of round-robin in which each player/team gets

11211-438: The two conferences the league has) to face the winner of the first-round series between the fourth and fifth seeds in the next round, even if one or more of the top three seeds had been upset in their first-round series; critics have claimed that this gives a team fighting for the fifth and sixth seeding positions near the end of the regular season an incentive to tank (deliberately lose) games, so as to finish sixth and thus avoid

11322-471: Was a 31 percent audience increase over the previous year's championship game and a 22 percent increase over the BCS title game's best rating on cable (a 16.1 rating in 2011 ). The semifinal games, the 2015 Rose Bowl and 2015 Sugar Bowl , saw 28.16 million and 28.27 million viewers, respectively. According to ESPN, these games also set (and briefly held) all-time records for cable TV viewership. Single-elimination tournament In English ,

11433-411: Was chosen as the first Orange Bowl queen. Past Orange Bowl Queens include Victoria Principal and Jackie Nespral . In its heyday, the parade was a nighttime New Year's Eve tradition, televised nationally with lighted floats and displays going down part of Biscayne Boulevard in downtown Miami to crowds as high as 500,000 people in the 1970s. However ratings dropped and the national television contract

11544-404: Was for the panel to consist proportionally of current "Power Five" athletic directors, former coaches, and a third group of other voters, excluding current conference commissioners, coaches, and media members. During the selection process, organizers said they wanted the committee to be geographically balanced. Conference commissioners submitted lists totaling more than 100 names from which to select

11655-456: Was getting started. The game developed into a popular sport with its own unique "post-season" of bowl games by the end of the first four decades of the 20th Century, the time around which the NCAA began to develop and oversee post-season tournaments in other sports. The NCAA did eventually come to oversee much of college football. For example, in 1957, the NCAA organized college football into University and College divisions, with larger programs in

11766-414: Was guaranteed a spot in one of the New Year's Six bowls. The CFP will expand to a 12-team format for the 2024 and 2025 seasons . Features of the expanded playoff include: The teams seeded 5–12 will play first-round games hosted by the better seed, either at their home stadium or another venue of their choosing. The semifinal and quarterfinal rounds of the playoff are hosted by the New Year's Six :

11877-451: Was held at the end of the 2014 NCAA Division I FBS football season under a four-team format. The CFP Board of Managers voted in 2023 to expand the playoff to twelve teams beginning in 2024, an arrangement that will last at least through the end of the 2025 season. After 2025, the current contract between all major players expires and a new contract will be drawn up, with indications that additional expansion may take place as soon as 2026. As

11988-636: Was later built) from 1935 to 1937, the Miami Orange Bowl from 1938 to 1996, and again in 1999, and was moved to its current site, Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida , in December 1996. The game was played back at the namesake stadium in 1999 (which would be the final bowl game ever in the Miami Orange Bowl) because the game was played on the same day the Miami Dolphins hosted an NFL Wild Card Playoff game. Coincidentally, both of those games were aired on ABC . On January 1, 1965,

12099-505: Was later changed to five conference champions and seven at-large bids after the 2021–2024 NCAA conference realignment resulted in the Pac-12 Conference dropping to two members. "Strength of schedule will become such an important factor ... that if you want to be under consideration, you need to have a more meaningful schedule than perhaps you've had in previous years." — Tom Jernstedt , selection committee member Due to

12210-410: Was lost in 1997, causing the parade to quickly become a shell of its former self since there were no sponsors for the elaborate floats. Attendance dwindled as well; by the turn of the millennium, the parade was lucky to draw 20,000 people. As a result, the committee chose to bring this tradition to an end in early 2002. The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is locked into a 12-year deal (2014–2025) with

12321-430: Was some talk that we would go into a room at the end of the season and come out with a top four, but that didn't last long." In analyzing this change in thinking, Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated commented: "The whole point of the selection committee was to replace the simplistic horse-race nature of Top 25 polls – where teams only move up if someone above them loses – with a more deliberative evaluation method. Now

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