Advertisement

Playoff semifinals to move off New Year's Eve in 4 future years

The College Football Playoff’s move to get its semifinal games off New Year’s Eve is official. Though it’s not as widespread of a shift as you may have been expecting.

The playoff announced Thursday that the semifinal games would have new dates in 2018, 2019, 2024 and 2025. The other six semifinal dates will stay either on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day depending on the way the calendar falls. Here’s a recap of the dates for the next 10 years. The semifinals for the 2016 season are unaffected with this change.

2016 season: Saturday, Dec. 31
2017 season: Monday, Jan. 1, 2018
2018 season: Saturday, Dec. 29
2019 season: Saturday Dec. 28
2020 season: Friday, Jan. 1, 2021
2021 season: Friday Dec. 31
2022 season: Saturday Dec. 31
2023 season: Monday, Jan. 1, 2024
2024 season: Saturday, Dec. 28
2025 season: Saturday, Dec. 27

The CFP was originally scheduled for New Year’s Eve in years where the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl weren’t the semifinal sites because of the “tradition” of having each of those bowls on Jan. 1. The 2015 semifinals, played on Dec. 31, saw television ratings drop nearly 40 percent from semifinals on Jan. 1, 2015, after the 2014 season.

The Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl are the semifinal sites at the conclusion of the 2017 season, the 2020 season and the 2023 season. The CFP made sure to point out in its release that New Year’s Eve at the end of 2022 will be officially recognized as a holiday because it’s on a Friday.

[Check out Dr. Saturday on Tumblr for entertaining things you won’t see on the blog]

“We had healthy discussions with a lot of people who love college football and we concluded that making these changes would be the right thing to do for our fans.” CFP spokesperson Bill Hancock said in a statement.

“We tried to do something special with New Year’s Eve, even when it fell on a weekday. But after studying this to see if it worked, we think we can do better. These adjustments will allow more people to experience the games they enjoy so much. For these four years, our previous call is reversed.”

The CFP semifinals are the Fiesta Bowl and Peach Bowl for the 2016 season.

[Visit Dr. Saturday on Facebook for stories you might have missed and chat with the writers]

– – – – – –

Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!