College Football Playoff Moving Forward Like It’s 2019

The College Football Playoff Selection Committee released their schedule for ranking announcements this season. This season the announcements will begin on Tuesday, Nov. 17. That is delayed this season in comparison to last when the first announcement was made on Nov. 5.

Further delayed this season already was the final announcement date for which teams will end up being selected for the playoff semi-finals in the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl along with the rest of the New Years Six bowl games: the Cotton, Fiesta, Orange, and Peach Bowls. After the SEC and ACC delayed their conference championship games until December 19, the playoff committee moved their Selection Day back to Sunday, December 20.

There was some curiosity as to how the playoff may proceed, or if there would be any kind of secondary playoff held in the spring with so many conferences already pushing back their fall season due to COVID-19. However, CBS Sports reports that is not under consideration.

While some committee members went on the record confidentially with CBS that the date announcements are essentially placeholders for now in case further delays occur, CFP Executive Director Bill Hancock made clear the schedule and any consideration to cancel or further postpone schedules for the CFP this season are flexible and can be made at a much later date from now. However, at this time the CFP is moving forward with the current bowl format and timeline in place as it was originally scheduled. The championship game is set for January 11, 2021 at Hard Rock Cafe Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

As for teams under consideration, for now they will only be members of the ACC, Big XII, SEC, American, Conference USA, the Sun Belt, and select independent schools still scheduled to play this fall. The Big Ten, PAC-12, MAC, Mountain West, and others will have to come up with their own postseason plans if they intend to play more than conference championship games.