The College Football Playoff won’t swap kickoff dates and times for the Cotton Bowl and Orange Bowl to give Notre Dame more time between games.
Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey had asked the CFP if it would be possible to switch up the schedule because Notre Dame will have a shorter turnaround than Penn State heading into next Thursday’s Orange Bowl. The Fighting Irish’s quarterfinal game in New Orleans was postponed by one day because of a deadly terror attack.
“We’re not going to flip the games,” CFP executive director Rich Clark told ESPN on Friday. “The concession we made with the athletic directors was to start the Sugar Bowl earlier — an 18-hour or so delay.
“We slipped the game 18 hours to ensure we could provide safety and security for teams, coaches, staffs, fans and others involved. NOLA and Sugar Bowl officials were amazing.”
Notre Dame advanced with a 23-10 Sugar Bowl win over Georgia on Thursday. Penn State played in the Fiesta Bowl on Tuesday night, beating Boise State 31-14.
Sankey told ESPN on Thursday that he had asked if swapping the schedule would be doable.
“This is not an SEC-related issue; it’s for both teams,” Sankey said. “I also know that the communities have dates, they have plans, there are stadium availability issues that can arise.”
Texas and Ohio State will play in the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 10. Clark cited the difficult logistics of changing the schedule.
“Logistics are very complicated, disruptive to the other teams involved that have schedules in place, especially Texas and Ohio State,” he said. “Fans have made arrangements already, and this creates issues for them. There’s more, but these are some of the major points.”
