A Different Kind of Home Field Advantage: CFP Rules Shaping Games

Notre Dame, Penn State, Texas, and Ohio State are preparing to host the first home games in College Football Playoff history this weekend, but things won’t look exactly the same on campus as they do any given Saturday for those four schools.

While the higher-seeded teams in Friday’s and Saturday’s games have a home field advantage over their road opponents, they won’t cash in as much as they normally do, and visiting teams won’t be quite as unwelcome.

That’s because the CFP is organizing the games, creating some unique circumstances:

• Ticket sales revenue goes to the CFP. Schools keep parking and concessions sales.
• Opposing schools are allotted 3,500 tickets (including seats for band members), far fewer than the typical 50-50 split during conference championship and bowl games.
• Away teams have the option for a hype video during introductions.
• Home team staff will operate the P.A. system and music, but there are no sponsored elements, per CFP rules.

The Playoff action will kick off Friday night when Indiana will play in-state rival Notre Dame. On Saturday night, SMU will visit Penn State, Clemson will go to Texas, and the nightcap will feature Tennessee at Ohio State.

Back to School

For the games at Notre Dame, Penn State, and Ohio State, weather forecasts call for subfreezing temperatures at kickoff—but no snow at this point. That will be a stark contrast to the sunny sky and warm weather expected in Austin, which could be more than 60 degrees at kickoff.

The on-campus CFP games created high demand for hotels and housing rentals in home markets, particularly South Bend, Ind., and State College, Pa. Those smaller cities each have roughly 100,000 residents, compared to the nearly one million each in Columbus and Austin.