LSU celebrates the CFP championship on Jan. 13 in New Orleans, leaving six more years and sites to be selected for the 2025 and 2026 title games.Getty images
The last two years of the College Football Playoff’s 12-year contract with ESPN are still without a site for the championship matchup. Although the next four cities are selected, starting with Miami in 2021, the CFP is not expected to begin the bid process for the 2025 and 2026 games until at least next year.
“We have not set a date for the next round, but I’m sure it will be in the next two years,” CFP Executive Director Bill Hancock said.
The most recent round of site selection was completed in November 2017, which resulted in championship game hosting roles for Miami, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Houston in 2021 through 2024.
From its inception, the CFP made a commitment to move the title game to different markets. Hancock called it the “10 for 10,” meaning the game would go to 10 different cities in its first 10 years. The 2024 game in Houston will be the 10th game in a different market. Four of the first 10 have been held in the Eastern time zone, three in the Central and two in the Pacific.
Now that the CFP has fulfilled the “10 for 10” commitment, the championship game could return to a previous site, like Dallas or Atlanta, or it could continue to explore playing in new markets.
Las Vegas is the city most often mentioned among those markets that have not hosted the game before. Allegiant Stadium is scheduled to open this summer for the 2020 football season.
The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, which hosts semifinal games four times in this 12-year cycle, but not in 2025 or 2026, could be an option for the championship game, but it has gone back and forth on submitting a bid.
Other potential first-time hosts could include Jacksonville, Orlando or San Antonio. If the CFP wanted to follow the NFL’s lead and visit a cold-weather market, it could look at Minneapolis and MetLife Stadium outside of New York.
A stadium must seat 65,000 to be considered.
