IRVING, Texas – Cowboys Stadium will host the first national championship game in the new College Football Playoff on Jan. 12, 2015.
The new four-team playoff system, dubbed the College Football Playoff, will begin after the 2014 regular season. Bill Hancock, executive director of the College Football Playoff, announced the decision Wednesday evening.
Hancock also announced that the Fiesta Bowl, Cotton Bowl and Chick-fil-A Bowl have been selected to be part of the six-bowl rotation that will host the College Football Playoff, and each bowl will host a national semifinal once every three years. The national championship game will be held in a different U.S. city each year.
"Coming only 10 months after the Final Four, our stadium certainly is becoming known for hosting the biggest and best events in the world," Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said in a news release. "We were joined in the bid process by our friends at the AT&T Cotton Bowl and we can't thank them enough for their efforts in helping North Texas and Cowboys Stadium secure the game."
The Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl have previously been chosen to host the first national semifinals, on January 1, 2015. The winners of those two games will face off in the first championship game two weeks later in Texas.
The Orange Bowl and the Cotton Bowl will host the semifinals in the second year of the playoff. The Chick-fil-A Bowl and Fiesta Bowl will host semifinals in the third year.
"The first championship game of the College Football Playoff era is going to be very special, and Cowboys Stadium is a wonderful place to host the first game," Hancock in a news release. "We're also pleased to announce the three other bowls that will be part of the College Football Playoff, because rotating the event means more fans in more cities can experience it in person."
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The announcement continues a trend of high-profile college contests going to Cowboys Stadium. Next year, the stadium will host the men's Final Four and the regular season college football opener between TCU and LSU.
"I know a lot of work will go into making the first College Football Playoff National Championship game a huge success," Jones said.
