How the CFP’s On-Campus Guinea Pigs Are Handling Historic December Home Games

For college campuses, the last two weeks of the year are typically when everything shuts down. 

Students empty out of their dorms to visit with family, staff and professors go on vacation, classrooms and dining halls are closed, and facilities are on pause. But in 2024, for the first time ever, four college campuses are going to host the biggest event in school history: the College Football Playoff. 

The CFP has meant some big changes for the four host schools—some of which have been in the works for months, while others have had to play catchup. 

“We want it to be as similar to a normal home game as possible,” CFP director of premium and ticket sales Michael Bos told The Athletic. “We’re trying to have them make as few changes as possible.”

That’s easier said than done: The games are being hosted on Dec. 20 and Dec. 21, a weekend when students are typically home and most campuses are closed for winter break. 

“Ohio State has been playing football since 1890,” OSU athletic director Ross Bjork said earlier this week. “This is our first home game ever in December.” The other three schools hosting CFP games are Notre Dame, Texas, and Penn State.

Here are the matchups:

• No. 7 Notre Dame hosts No. 10 Indiana, Friday, Dec. 20, 8 p.m. ET 
• No. 6 Penn State hosts No. 11 SMU, Saturday, Dec. 21, 12 p.m. ET
• No. 5 Texas hosts No. 12 Clemson, Saturday, Dec. 21, 4 p.m. ET
• No. 8 Ohio State hosts No. 9 Tennessee, Saturday, Dec. 21, 8 p.m. ET

With four schools set to host the first-ever games of the 12-team Playoff, it has been a mixed bag of college staff adjusting their academic calendars and dormitory availability to cater to students, or keeping things status quo. 

Two of the four games will take place in Austin, Texas, and Columbus, Ohio, state capitals that give visiting fans or students who want to stay for the game more lodging options to do so than a traditional college town. 

For some schools such as Notre Dame, the decision was made to get out in front of its fate, which wasn’t decided until this month. Before the academic year began, the school altered its calendar in anticipation of a possible home Playoff game. The final exam schedule was adjusted to ensure students will finish Thursday, Dec. 19, a day before kickoff, while keeping dorms and dining halls open through Dec. 22 so students would be able to attend the game and access on-campus housing. In 2023, residence halls closed Dec. 16, the Saturday after finals concluded; Notre Dame adjusted its academic calendar by almost a week to make it possible for students to see the game. 

Indiana, roughly 200 miles south of Notre Dame’s campus, took a different approach. Traditionally a basketball school, the Hoosiers have been one of college football’s biggest surprises this season, going 11–1 to make the Playoff in Curt Cignetti’s first season running the program. The Hoosiers will travel to Notre Dame on Dec. 20 for a game between two in-state schools.

On Monday, IU decided to make a last-minute change and move winter graduation ceremonies on Dec. 20 up from 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 9 a.m. and noon, respectively, so students would free up to watch the game or make the three-hour trip up to South Bend. The visiting team gets only 3,500 tickets for the game, which is why some students complained that their family accommodations were affected by the move. Other students claimed the school was choosing athletics over academics to accommodate a small number of students. 

Penn State has been ahead of the curve for months. In April, the university announced a shift in its fall commencement schedule, moving graduation ceremonies from Saturday to Sunday, Dec. 22 due to “potential conflict with a large-scale event on the University Park campus.” It’s why the Nittany Lions’ game against SMU on Saturday, Dec. 21 fits nicely with the school’s academic calendar as final exams end on Friday and graduation ceremonies begin Sunday, creating a jam-packed weekend in a small-town state college. Prices for a hotel or Airbnb in the Pennsylvania town are going for more than $1,200 a night that weekend. 

Similar to Penn State, Texas has had a potential home game on its radar for months and began making preparations as soon as the 12-team format was nailed down in February. 

“Conversations went into motion pretty immediately for what does that look like with the calendar and what does that look like for any conflicting events,” Drew Martin, Texas’s executive senior associate AD of external affairs, told Front Office Sports. “We were out ahead with a lot of that stuff in terms of campus partners and community partners. We were able to get those dates out in front of people as soon as we knew them.” 

But while athletes won’t have issues accessing their dorms, UT’s campus housing told FOS in an email that it won’t be changing its housing and dining schedules for the Longhorns’ game on Dec. 21 and instead will close on-campus housing on Tuesday at the end of the semester. Martin said the athletic department isn’t worried about attendance for the game because there are so many Longhorns fans in the Austin area. 

Ohio State is in a similar situation, with classes and graduation wrapping this week, plus certain residence halls and dining halls closing for the semester on Friday. About half of the approximately 40 residence halls at OSU are open during winter break (called “academic year halls”). “We do ask students to let us know if they plan to be in their academic year hall at any time during a break so we can ensure they have the proper access,” an Ohio State spokesperson told FOS.

With no precedent to draw from, all four schools will be improvising their hosting roles to some extent as they see how their planning—or lack thereof—impact the game experience for fans and students.