Commissioners determined preliminary dates for the additional Playoff games of the expanded College Football Playoff, voting to hold first-round games that conflict with the NFL and semifinals on midweek nights. CFP executive director Bill Hancock confirmed the dates during an interview with reporters following the final day of commissioner meetings this week in the Dallas suburb.
In the 2024 Playoff, the first-round games, played at the home site of the better seed, will kick off the third week of December. One game will be played Friday night, Dec. 20, and three games Saturday, Dec. 21. The NFL begins playing Saturday regular-season games that weekend.
Three of the four quarterfinals are slated for New Year’s Day with one quarterfinal scheduled on New Year’s Eve (a Tuesday night) or Jan. 2. None of them conflict with NFL games. The 2024 semifinals are scheduled to be played on a midweek day, Hancock says. That would presumably be Thursday and/or Friday, Jan. 9–10, in an effort to avoid the NFL’s wild-card weekend, which begins that Saturday.
