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129-635: 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

258-553: A 45-year self-imposed ban. When the Irish made that decision, 9–1 LSU was overlooked for the game, and the Tigers stayed home instead. The Irish, led by quarterback Joe Theismann , faced top-ranked and undefeated Texas . Notre Dame led 17–14 late in the fourth quarter, but the Longhorns scored a late touchdown to clinch a 21–17 victory and an undisputed national championship. The same two teams met

387-593: 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

516-514: A Sunday. The other major bowl games that year—the Rose Bowl , Sugar Bowl , and Orange Bowl —were played on Monday, January 2. The 1968 game saw SWC champs Texas A&M , led by coach Gene Stallings defeat former A&M head coach Bear Bryant and the Alabama Crimson Tide . Stallings was one of Bryant's " Junction Boys " as well as a former assistant, and would eventually go on to coach

645-568: A blowout to force a tie for the conference crown, and opened the door for Arkansas to stroll to Dallas on New Year's Day. After the Bulldogs jumped out to a 10–0 lead, the Hogs came roaring back, scoring 31 unanswered points, and defeating Georgia, 31–10. Arkansas finished the season 10–2. The 1977 Cotton Bowl featured SWC Champions Houston Cougars, who were entering the Cotton Bowl for the first time, against

774-570: A bowl game for the first time in 25 years, played Dallas' SMU to a 13–13 tie. Because none of the Dallas hotels would provide accommodations for the two African-American members of the Penn State team, the Penn State team ended up staying at a Naval Air Station 14 miles from Dallas. This was the first interracial game played at the Cotton Bowl Stadium . The 1953 Cotton Bowl would be a rematch of

903-508: 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

1032-420: 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

1161-451: 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

1290-468: 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

1419-494: 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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1548-437: 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

1677-562: 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: Cotton Bowl Classic The Cotton Bowl Classic (also known as the Cotton Bowl ) is an American college football bowl game that has been held annually in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex since January 1, 1937. The game

1806-507: 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

1935-452: 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

2064-459: 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

2193-561: 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

2322-465: 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

2451-674: 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

2580-533: 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

2709-593: 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

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2838-456: 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 ,

2967-503: 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

3096-421: 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

3225-475: 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

3354-529: The College Football Playoff (CFP) since the 2014 season; it 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 Cotton Bowl Classic will become an annual feature of that playoff, along with the other New Year's Six bowls. Traditional conference tie-ins prior to 2024 will still try to be respected for

3483-705: 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

3612-562: 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

3741-646: 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

3870-515: 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

3999-482: 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

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4128-475: The 1951 bowl game as Texas and Tennessee played for the second time. Texas defensive stars shut out the Vols 16–0 as the Longhorns avenged the previous meeting when Tennessee beat Texas 20–14. The 1954 Cotton Bowl Classic featured one of the most famous plays in college football history. Rice 's Dickey Moegle (last name spelling later changed to "Maegle") began a run around end from his team's 5-yard line and down

4257-454: The 1980s, many SWC teams were left ineligible for postseason play due to NCAA probations for rule violations. Also, the conference's quality of play suffered a marked decline. The SWC champion lost the last seven times in which it received an automatic bid to the game, and the last national champion for almost four decades to play in the Cotton Bowl Classic was Notre Dame in 1977 (eventual national champions Alabama and Clemson would later play in

4386-575: The 2000 Classic. The Arkansas Razorbacks , now a member of the SEC (as of 1992 ), and Texas Longhorns, now a member of the Big XII (as of 1996 ) faced off in the first college football game of the last year of the 20th Century. After a lackluster first half ended with the game tied 3–3, the Razorbacks opened things up, led by Offensive MVP running back Cedric Cobbs . Arkansas beat their former hated rival, 27–6, holding

4515-619: The 2024 and 2025 seasons but are no longer obligated to be met. The winner of the Cotton Bowl is awarded the Field Scovell Trophy. The Cotton Bowl Classic was founded in Dallas in 1937 at the Texas State Fair Grounds , when Texas oil executive J. Curtis Sanford financed the first bowl game. Texas Christian and star quarterback Sammy Baugh took on Marquette , winning 16–6, but the game lost money even though some 17,000 attended. Nonetheless, Sanford persevered, and in 1938

4644-474: The 4th quarter work of freshman fullback Robert (Bob) Lee Clodfelter, who was to mature under Weeb Ewbank at Washington University in St. Louis the next three years. In 1947 LSU and Arkansas played in front of 38,000 people to a scoreless tie in what would later become known as the "Ice Bowl." LSU got the better of Arkansas most of the game, but the game truly belonged to the weatherman. In 1948 Penn State , in

4773-562: 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

4902-596: 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

5031-504: The AP and UPI (Coaches) polls national titles before the bowl games (which was standard at that time), Arkansas still had a chance to claim a share of the national championship with a victory over Nebraska. After a hard-fought defensive battle, the Hogs prevailed 10–7. That victory, coupled with an Alabama loss in the Orange Bowl to Texas (a team Arkansas defeated in Austin, Texas.), gave Arkansas

5160-586: The BCS and ESPN had forestalled any possibility of the Cotton Bowl Classic joining the BCS until 2015 at the earliest. Later findings that the Fiesta Bowl reimbursed employees more than $ 46,000 for political contributions could have opened the door for the Cotton Bowl to replace the Fiesta in the BCS bowl rotation; however, the Fiesta Bowl did not lose its BCS rotation. In the 2010 Cotton Bowl Classic played between

5289-441: The BCS in 2011. The Cotton Bowl had recently been remodeled and expanded to over 92,000 seats as part of a long-term drive to regain major status for the bowl game. However, Dallas' frequently cold January weather had been a longstanding concern, and was thought to have hampered any prospect of upgrading the game to the BCS. In contrast, the new stadium would offer top amenities and a retractable roof. A new four-year agreement between

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5418-510: 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

5547-749: The Big 12 after the Bowl Alliance and its successor, the Bowl Championship Series –usually the championship game loser or a division runner-up. From 1996 to 1998, the other participant was either the champion of the Western Athletic Conference or the runner-up of the Pac-10 Conference . In 1996, the No. 5 BYU Cougars joined Notre Dame as the only programs outside of a major conference to play in

5676-587: 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

5805-447: 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

5934-453: 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

6063-479: The Cotton Bowl Classic was a 12–7 loss to Texas in 1962. The 2004 Cotton Bowl Classic would also be New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning 's last college football game. Manning led his team to beat Oklahoma State 31–28. The 2007 Cotton Bowl Classic was between Auburn Tigers and the Nebraska Cornhuskers ; Auburn won 17–14. In the 2008 Cotton Bowl Classic, Missouri 's running back Tony Temple broke

6192-451: The Cotton Bowl after the 2015 and 2018 seasons, respectively). Finally, the Cotton Bowl Classic was played outdoors during cold weather on occasion (most notably the 1979 game). Meanwhile, the Fiesta Bowl , unhindered by conference tie-ins and played in generally warm weather, propelled itself to major-bowl status by attracting national championship contenders, most notably with its January 1987 matchup between Penn State and Miami . In

6321-467: The Cotton Bowl in the modern era, defeating the Kansas State Wildcats 19–15, winning an NCAA record 14th game, and finishing the season ranked fifth in the country with a 14–1 record. In 1999, the Cotton Bowl arranged for a team from the Southeastern Conference to be the Big 12 opponent, and Southwestern Bell (now AT&T) began sponsoring the event. More often than not, the SEC representative

6450-472: The Cotton Bowl stadium, the 8–4, No. 20 Ole Miss Rebels defeated the 11–1, No. 7 Texas Tech Red Raiders , 47–34. Tech quarterback Graham Harrell broke the NCAA record in this game for most touchdown passes thrown by anyone in Cotton Bowl Classic history. In 2010, the Cotton Bowl Classic moved to the new Cowboys Stadium (now AT&T Stadium) in Arlington, as part of a bid by bowl officials to make it part of

6579-654: The Grantland Rice Trophy emblematic of the national championship awarded by the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA). In the 1966 game, Arkansas put its 22-game winning streak at risk playing LSU, who defeated the Razorbacks, 14–7. The 1967 game was moved to Saturday, December 31, 1966, due to the Dallas Cowboys hosting the NFL Championship Game at the stadium on New Year's Day,

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6708-569: The Irish and quarterback Joe Montana roll to a 38–10 victory. The Irish vaulted from fifth to first in the final polls with the victory. The 1973 game featured Texas and Alabama once again playing in a bowl game. Alabama led 13–10 going into the 4th quarter when Texas quarterback, Alan Lowry, ran the bootleg to perfection and scrambled 32 yards for the go-ahead touchdown. Again, Texas defeated Alabama and Bear Bryant , 17–13. The 1976 Cotton Bowl showcased SWC co-Champ Arkansas against SEC stalwart Georgia. The Razorbacks had beaten No. 2 Texas A&M in

6837-520: The Lakewood area. "Woodrow" became the first high school ever to produce two Heisman winners. For 53 years, the SWC champion played as the home team in the Cotton Bowl Classic, a tie-in which continued through the 1994 season . Until the mid-1980s, the contest was almost universally counted as a major New Year's Day bowl. However, by the late 1980s, the Cotton Bowl Classic's prestige had fallen significantly. During

6966-468: The Longhorns a possible national title. The 1989 game between UCLA and Arkansas was highly publicized in the Dallas area because Bruin quarterback Troy Aikman was expected to be the top pick in the 1989 NFL draft ; the first pick was held by the Dallas Cowboys . Much was made of Cowboys longtime head coach Tom Landry watching Aikman practice at Texas Stadium , UCLA's practice facility for game preparation. Landry never got to draft Aikman, because he

7095-464: The Longhorns faced a highly talented Mississippi Rebels team. The game was a low scoring meeting that came down to the final quarter as Texas won 12–7. The 1963 game featured the returning Texas Longhorns and the LSU Tigers , who, like Mississippi, were from the SEC. Lynn Amedee 's 23-yard field goal gave the Tigers a 3–0 halftime lead after Texas had missed their own which led to an 80-yard drive. This

7224-650: The Longhorns to negative yards rushing, and sacking the Texas QB a bowl-record 8 times. The 2003 Cotton Bowl Classic saw a rematch between the Texas Longhorns and the LSU Tigers. LSU led at the half 17–7 however Roy Williams of Texas had a tremendous breakout in the second half to lead Texas to victory over the Tigers, 35–20. The 2004 Cotton Bowl Classic saw the return of the Mississippi Rebels , whose last appearance in

7353-537: The Longhorns up 14–10 with 2:05 remaining. Alabama's Joey Jones returned the ensuing kickoff to the Texas 38-yard line, and Tide quarterback Walter Lewis took over with 1:54 left. On the very next play, UT's William Graham picked off a Lewis pass at the one. The Longhorns took a safety to insure better field position and Texas once again stunned Alabama and the Bear with a 14–12 victory. The 1984 game featured No. 7 Georgia of

7482-426: 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

7611-408: 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

7740-495: 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

7869-469: The SEC against undefeated No. 2 Texas of the SWC. Texas led 9–3 with more than four minutes to play in a battle of field goals between Georgia's Kevin Butler and Texas' Jeff Ward. A Chip Andrews (Georgia) punt was muffed by Texas defensive back Craig Curry late in the fourth quarter, then Georgia quarterback John Lastinger ran 17 yards for a touchdown with 3:22 left to play to capture a 10–9 victory, costing

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7998-685: The Tide. After the Aggies defeated the Tide 20–16, Bryant embraced Stallings and carried him off the field. In 1969, Texas was off and running with its new offensive formation, the Wishbone. After dismantling all opponents of the 1968 season, Texas won the SWC crown again and this time faced the Tennessee Volunteers, in what was a lopsided win for Texas with almost 400 rushing yards. Texas won 36–13. The 1970 game featured Notre Dame 's return to bowl games after

8127-534: 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

8256-600: 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

8385-428: The bowl game rushing record by gaining 281 yards on 24 carries. (The record was previously held by Rice's Dickey Maegle, who had rushed for 265 yards.) Missouri beat Arkansas 38–7. In April 2008, Cotton Bowl Classic officials announced that in 2009 and 2010 the game would be moved from its traditional start time of 10 a.m. CST on January 1 to 1 p.m. CST on January 2. In the final Cotton Bowl Classic game to be held in

8514-458: 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

8643-421: 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

8772-453: 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

8901-412: 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

9030-436: 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

9159-473: The final time that Bear Bryant would face the Longhorns. Having lost to Texas in all meetings prior, Alabama went into the fourth quarter ahead 10–0 and it would appear that the Bear would finally get a win over Texas while at Alabama. But the Longhorns scored their first points with a quarterback draw by Robert Brewer on a 3rd-and-long with 10:38 remaining. On Texas' next possession, Terry Orr scored from eight yards out to cap an 11-play, 80-yard drive to put

9288-403: 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

9417-476: 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

9546-447: 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

9675-513: The game hosted the champion of the Southwest Conference (SWC) against a team invited from elsewhere in the country, frequently a major independent or a runner-up from the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Following the dissolution of the SWC in 1996, the game hosted a runner-up from the Big 12 Conference , facing an SEC team from 1999 to 2014. The Cotton Bowl Classic has served as one of six bowls in

9804-573: The game made a profit as Rice defeated Byron White 's Colorado 28–14 in front of a crowd of 37,000. Some 40,000 attended the 1939 match between Saint Mary's College of California and Texas Tech , with the Gaels upsetting the undefeated Red Raiders 20–13. In 1940, an underdog Clemson team surprised the Boston College Eagles 6–3, in the first and only appearance at the Cotton Bowl Classic by Tigers coach Frank Howard . Attendance at this game

9933-477: The game. Three of the four Heisman Trophy winners from the 1984–87 seasons finished their college career in the Cotton Bowl Classic: Doug Flutie for Boston College in January 1985, Bo Jackson of Auburn in 1986, and Tim Brown of Notre Dame in 1988. Brown and fellow Heisman winner Davey O'Brien , who played in the 1937 Cotton Bowl, both attended nearby Woodrow Wilson High School in

10062-466: 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

10191-408: 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

10320-465: The margin of victory as TCU won, 28–27. TCU QB Chuck Curtis passed for 174 yards, threw for two touchdowns and rushed for another to lead the Frogs. In 1960, Syracuse defeated Texas 23–14 to win the national championship . Syracuse was led by bowl MVP Ernie Davis , who ran for one touchdown, caught a Cotton Bowl Classic record 87-yard touchdown, and intercepted a pass leading to a third touchdown. There

10449-519: The minds of many fans, the Fiesta replaced the Cotton as a major bowl. Despite this, the Cotton Bowl Classic still retained enough prestige that it was included as one of the top bowls in the Bowl Coalition when it was formed in 1992. However, in 1995, the new Bowl Alliance (the predecessor of the BCS) chose to include the Fiesta over the Cotton in its rotation. While it was still capable of landing Top 10 teams, it

10578-502: 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

10707-399: 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

10836-526: The next year, but this time, the Irish ended the Longhorns' 30-game winning streak with a 24–11 victory, denying Texas the Associated Press national championship (the Longhorns had already clinched the regular season championship in the UPI poll, a pre-bowl poll until the 1974 season; Nebraska won the AP title). Texas and Notre Dame met again in the 1978 game, with the Longhorns again top-ranked, only to see

10965-564: The open field. Alabama 's Tommy Lewis jumped off the bench and tackled Moegle. The referee, Cliff Shaw, saw what happened and signaled touchdown even though Moegle was "tackled" at the 42-yard line. The 1957 Classic matched the TCU Horned Frogs against the Jim Brown -led Syracuse Orangemen . Brown rushed for 135 yards, scored three touchdowns and kicked three extra points but a fourth-quarter blocked extra point by TCU's Chico Mendoza proved

11094-475: 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

11223-414: 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

11352-593: 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

11481-583: 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

11610-511: 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

11739-518: 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

11868-420: 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

11997-463: 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

12126-571: 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

12255-415: 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,

12384-446: 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

12513-514: 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

12642-515: 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

12771-399: 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

12900-761: 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

13029-490: 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

13158-422: 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

13287-452: 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

13416-527: 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

13545-420: 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

13674-476: 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,

13803-450: 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

13932-1007: 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

14061-477: The time. Prior to the game, sportswriters boasted that Texas did not belong in the same league as Georgia Tech. Texas proved the public wrong by defeating the Yellow Jackets 14–7 in what was mostly a defensive battle. This Cotton Bowl was the first bowl appearance for Texas as the Longhorns would go on to appear in a record 22 Cotton Bowls, the most of any team. In 1946, Missouri was defeated by Texas , despite

14190-468: 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

14319-470: 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

14448-438: 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

14577-630: The undefeated Maryland Terrapins. Houston won 30–21, handing the Terps their only loss of the year. The 1979 Cotton Bowl Classic , nicknamed the Chicken Soup Game, featured one of the most historic comebacks in bowl history. Notre Dame trailed Houston 34–12 midway through the fourth quarter. Thanks to a blocked punt and the brilliance of future NFL Hall of Famer Joe Montana , the Irish rallied to win 35–34, their second consecutive Cotton Bowl Classic victory. The 1982 game between Texas and Alabama would be

14706-471: 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 ,

14835-413: Was a brawl on the field just before the end of the first half; some said it was because of Texas taking cheap shots at Ernie Davis. The University of Texas president Logan Wilson called for an NCAA hearing on the fight after the game. Syracuse Athletic Director Lew Andreas asserted that no one from his university had accused Texas of dirty play, and attributed those claims to members of the media. The issue

14964-474: Was dropped shortly thereafter. In 1961, Davis became the first black athlete to win the Heisman Trophy , but died of leukemia before his pro career could begin. Duke defeated Arkansas 7–6 in the 1961 game. Duke scored with 2:45 remaining and recovered a fumble on the ensuing series to win the game. In 1962, Texas would again be selected to play in the Cotton Bowl after winning another SWC crown. This time

15093-421: Was fired the next month, but his successor, Jimmy Johnson , did. UCLA and Aikman won, 17–3. The Cotton Bowl Classic has seen its share of great quarterbacks. Sammy Baugh , Davey O'Brien , Babe Parilli , Bobby Layne , Norm Van Brocklin , Y. A. Tittle , Bart Starr , Roger Staubach , Ken Stabler , Joe Theismann , Joe Montana , Dan Marino , Doug Flutie , Troy Aikman , and Eli Manning all have played in

15222-404: 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

15351-456: 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

15480-544: Was given as 20,000. Later that year, a group of prominent Dallas citizens took over the staging of the game as the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association. A few months later, the CBAA became an agency of the Southwest Conference . From 1941 to 1994, the SWC's champion hosted the Cotton Bowl Classic. In 1943, The Texas Longhorns represented the SWC in their first ever bowl game against a highly ranked Georgia Tech team at

15609-414: 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 :

15738-451: 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

15867-497: 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

15996-414: Was no longer in a position to decide the national championship. In 18 of the 21 seasons since 1995, the Cotton Bowl has featured two ranked opponents. In the other three seasons, one of the teams was ranked (2002, 2003, and 2010). In 1995, the SWC gave up control of the Cotton Bowl Classic as part of its planned dissolution after the season. From 1999 to 2014, the Cotton Bowl Classic had the second pick from

16125-608: Was originally played at its namesake stadium in Dallas before moving to Cowboys Stadium (now AT&T Stadium ) in nearby Arlington in 2010. Since 2014, the game has been sponsored by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and officially known as the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic ; it was previously sponsored by Mobil (1989–1995) and Southwestern Bell Corporation/SBC Communications/ AT&T (1997–2014). Historically,

16254-545: Was played six weeks after the assassination of John F. Kennedy (coincidentally, a retired Naval officer) in Dallas. The 1964 game is the second bowl game in college football history to pair the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the nation (the 1963 Rose Bowl being the first). In 1965, the Arkansas Razorbacks took an undefeated record (10–0) into the Classic versus a 9–1 Nebraska Cornhuskers team. Although Alabama had been awarded

16383-430: 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

16512-490: Was the first field goal in the Classic since 1942. Amedee recovered a Longhorn fumble at the 37 early in the third quarter and Jimmy Field scored 5 plays later on a touchdown run. Buddy Hamic recovered a Longhorn fumble to set up an Amedee field goal 13 plays later as the Tigers shut the Longhorns out. In 1964, No. 1 Texas completed an undefeated season by defeating No. 2 Navy (led by Heisman Trophy winner and future Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach ). The game

16641-571: Was the runner-up from the West Division. However, Tennessee appeared in 2001 and 2005, and Missouri appeared in 2014. Through 2008, the Cotton Bowl Classic continued to be played on New Year's Day (except in 2004 and 2006, when the game was moved to January 2) and was usually the second game of the day to kick off, generally following the Outback Bowl . This decade was kicked off in grand fashion, as two former Southwest Conference rivals faced off in

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