Debate Over CFP Home Games vs. Neutral Sites Rages On

The success of College Football Playoff home games in the first round has led to many fans, coaches, and pundits across the sport calling for more postseason matchups to be played on campuses.

Under the current 12-team CFP format, the quarterfinals and semifinals are played on a rotating basis at neutral-site New Year’s Six bowl games.

Next season, ESPN’s six-year, $7.8 billion media-rights contract extension kicks in, and that format is set to remain intact, unless the CFP management committee—made up of FBS conference commissioners and Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua—were to decide to switch things up, a CFP source tells Front Office Sports.

Last week, Oregon coach Dan Lanning said he believed his No. 5 Ducks should be preparing for a true road trip instead of a neutral-site matchup with No. 4 Texas Tech. “In my opinion, we’re really excited to be going to the Orange Bowl—but this game should be played at Texas Tech, the higher-seeded team,” Lanning said.

And as on-campus games give way to neutral-site matchups for the remainder of the CFP, resale ticket prices show there has been less demand for the quarterfinals than the first round over the first two years of the 12-team CFP era. The drop in ticket prices for this year’s Rose Bowl, under $100 on Ticketmaster (the game’s official ticketing provider) as of Wednesday afternoon, is particularly jarring, given the game’s premier status in college football. The cheapest face value Rose Bowl tickets were $196.

Another wrinkle that may have an impact on where future CFP games are played is a pending decision on expanding beyond 12 teams for the 2026 season. ESPN pushed back a deadline for the CFP to inform the network of its format for next season from Dec. 1 to Jan. 23.

Expanding to 16 teams would likely add four more first-round home games. However, shifting the quarterfinals (and potentially semifinals) from bowl games to on-campus contests would not necessarily be approved at the same time as expansion.