College Football Playoff passes on Phoenix (again) as host for championship game
The College Football Playoff recently revealed the location for the 2028 national championship. The event is headed back to New Orleans, which served as host for the 2020 game.
Which begs the question: When does Arizona get another shot?
After all, the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, which has been renamed State Farm Stadium, staged the CFP title game way back in January 2016 and hasn’t hosted since.
“There’s no rule that says we have to go back to any city,” CFP executive director Rich Clark told the Hotline in July. “We’ll look at any city that puts a bid in.”
The number of multi-time hosts is increasing.
Atlanta just had its second title game, Miami will stage the event for the second time in January and New Orleans has booked its second edition.
Host cities beyond January ’28 have not been announced, although The Action Network reported Tampa and Miami are in line for the games in 2029 and 2030, respectively.
It would be Tampa’s second turn as host, and Miami’s third.
“There are a lot of factors that go into it,” Clark said. “We like it to be a destination city, and Phoenix is that type of city.
“For the first 10 years, there was a different city each time. Atlanta was the first to repeat. Miami will be the second.”
When will Phoenix get its turn?
The situation is doubly perplexing considering Phoenix, and the Fiesta Bowl specifically, effectively invented the modern national championship at the end of the 1986 season.
Instead of matching No. 1 Miami against No. 2 Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year’s Day, as usual, bowl organizers and NBC shifted the game to a standalone TV window on Jan. 2 — and the eyeballs followed: The game drew an impressive rating (25.1).
Eventually, the Bowl Championship Series drew from the Fiesta Bowl’s playbook and removed the title game from the Jan. 1 lineup.
Every few years, metropolitan Phoenix served as the host. When the CFP was created, the city received the second championship game (January 2016).
Since then, the Valley of the Sun has been eclipsed as the CFP expanded its options and new stadiums in Las Vegas and Los Angeles offered alternatives to Phoenix in the western half of the country.
Key point: The Fiesta Bowl is part of the annual rotation for quarterfinal and semifinal games, along with the Orange, Rose, Sugar, Peach and Cotton Bowls. But the championship is a separate entity.
And for Phoenix, the window is closing.
The College Football Playoff’s broadcast contract with ESPN runs through the 2031 season — after that, the event is nothing more than a good idea.
If The Action Network’s report that Tampa and Miami will host in 2029-30 proves correct, there are just two championship games available for Phoenix: in January ’31 and ’32.
It could be several years before the CFP settles on preferred sites for the final two games of the contract cycle.
“I believe Phoenix will be in the running,” Clark said. “We have to vet the bids and look at all the factors.”
The shutout continues.
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