South Florida’s Capital One Orange Bowl just got finished on Friday night celebrating its hosting of a College Football Playoff semifinal at Hard Rock Stadium between No. 3 Georgia and No. 2 Michigan.
Are you ready for a national championship game, Hard Rock?
Brett McMurphy of The Action Network reported Thursday evening, through sources, that “Las Vegas and Miami will host the 2025 and 2026 title games.’’
The report said those games are “the final two years of the current 12-year playoff contract,’’ and that depending on whether the playoffs expand from the current four-team system, Las Vegas would host the title game on Jan. 6 or Jan. 20, 2025, and Miami would host the title game on Jan. 5 or Jan. 19, 2026.
Last year, after the 2020 regular season, the Orange Bowl hosted its first College Football Playoff National Championship in January 2021. No. 1 Alabama defeated No. 3 Ohio State for the title.
“We’re obviously interested in getting the championship game back here as soon as possible,” a source involved with South Florida’s College Football Playoff effort told the Miami Herald.
When asked about the report, College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock told the Herald: “Nothing has been decided about the CFP national championship game sites for 2025 and 2026. When the CFP format is finalized for those years, then the management committee will confirm the game dates, then we will talk to potential host cities about our expectations of the hosts. We will let you know when we have something to report.’’
And this, from the South Florida Host Committee: “Nothing has been decided about the hosts of the CFP 2025 and 2026 national championships. It is our understanding that once the CFP format has been finalized for those years, then the CFP will confirm the dates and engage potential host cities about the expectations of a host.
“Following the successful of the 2021 CFP National Championship in Miami during the pandemic, it has been the host committe’s focus to bring another national championship game back to South Florida as soon as possible.’’
The CFP semifinal at the Orange Bowl on Friday was the fourth local installment of a playoff game — three of them semifinals.
There’s still one left at Hard Rock in the current rotation, but it won’t come for a few years.
The next time South Florida football fans can enjoy a Playoff semifinal in the Orange Bowl will be Dec. 28, 2024.
“It’s been great,’’ Hancock said before kickoff of the game. “We look at how the teams have been treated, and they’ve been treated great. Their hotels are super. Their practice sites are excellent. They’re very happy and ready to play.”
The other two CFP semifinals at the Orange Bowl were on Dec. 31, 2015, when No. 1 Clemson defeated No. 4 Oklahoma 37-17 at Sun Life Stadium; and on Dec. 29, 2018, when No. 1 Alabama defeated No. 4 Oklahoma 45-34 at Hard Rock.
