Despite Bill Hancock‘s continued insistence to the contrary, the College Football Playoff has not yet claimed New Year’s Eve as its own. Go ask your non-diehard friends when the next semifinals are, and chances are they’ll tell you New Year’s Day. And why wouldn’t they? The Rose and Sugar bowls were on Jan. 1 this year, and that seemed to work out okay for everyone.
That changes in 2015.
Despite reported pressure from ESPN, the Playoff will indeed place its semifinals on Dec. 31 two out of every three years, beginning this New Year’s Eve.
Announced officially on Tuesday afternoon, behold your 2015-16 New Year’s viewing schedule:
New Year’s Eve
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl - noon ET
Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic or Capital One Orange Bowl - 4 p.m. ET
Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic or Capital One Orange Bowl - 8 p.m. ET
New Year’s Day
Fiesta Bowl - 1 p.m. ET
Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual - 5 p.m. ET
Allstate Sugar Bowl - 8:30 p.m. ET
The sequence of the two semifinals will be announced along with the pairings on Selection Sunday, Dec. 6.