Back before you know it? Report: Miami to host 2026 College Football Playoff title game
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.
“If the playoff remains at four teams in 2025,’’ the report said, “the semifinal would be played on Dec. 27 with the championship in Miami on Jan. 5, 2026. If the playoff has expanded, Miami could host the game as late as Jan. 19, sources said.’’
Last year, after the 2020 regular season, South Florida/Hard Rock Stadium hosted its first College Football Playoff National Championship in January 2021. No. 1 Alabama defeated No. 3 Ohio State for the title. But it was during the pandemic and sources told The Action Network that officials “wanted to award Miami another title game as soon as possible because of the financial hardships incurred by Miami.’’
When asked about the report, College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock told the Miami 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 hosting of the 2021 CFP National Championship in Miami during the pandemic, it has been the host committee’s focus to bring another national championship game back to South Florida as soon as possible.’’
The 2022 CFP national championship game will be played at 8 p.m. Monday between No. 1 Alabama and Georgia at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
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 Friday. “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.
“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 Herald.
This story was originally published January 6, 2022 at 6:01 PM.
