College Football Playoff Details Announced

Those running the BCS have been making some announcements tonight about the College Football Playoff that will replace the BCS beginning with the 2014 season.

As expected, Cowboys Stadium will host the first championship game in January of 2015. It has been the favorite all along as the most advanced stadium in the country, so it will provide the grand stage the sport's leaders are looking for. Tampa came up second after submitting an apparently impressive bid. We'll hear what the following two championship game sites will be in September, and it wouldn't be a shock to see Tampa get one of them.

Also as expected, the three so-called "host bowls" will be the Fiesta Bowl, Cotton Bowl, and Chick-fil-A Bowl. We've known from the start that three of the special six bowls will be the Rose, Sugar, and Orange Bowls, and they get the "contract bowl" designation since they have contractual tie-ins. These other three host bowls will not have tie-ins.

Here is the rotation for the semifinal games:

• Rose and Sugar: 1/1, 2015; 1/1, 2018; 1/1, 2021; and 1/1, 2024.
• Orange and Cotton: 12/31, 2015; 12/31, 2018; 12/31, 2021; and 12/31, 2024.
• Fiesta and Chick-fil-A: 12/31, 2016; 12/31, 2019; 12/31, 2022; and 12/31, 2025.

Perhaps the most exciting development is that to be a part of the playoff, the Chick-fil-A Bowl will likely have to go back to being the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. No official word has come out on it yet, but bowls with only corporate sponsorships and no other designations just don't sound right.