If there were any concerns about the college football season slipping later and later into January, they will not be assuaged in the coming years.
The College Football Playoff announced Friday that the 2027 national championship is set for Monday, January 25, by far the latest date for the title game. This year’s date of January 20 was the previous mark. Next year’s title game is set for January 19.
The game, set for Las Vegas, will be the first national title game since 2010 to air on broadcast television as part of the new media rights deal that officially kicks in that season.
The late date for the game is in large measure a function of the NFL schedule (as previously anticipated). The title game took place on Martin Luther King Day this year and will again next year, but that day in 2027 will coincide with NFL Wild Card Weekend, which includes a Monday night game. It is no longer feasible in the 12-team era to hold the title game the Monday before MLK Day, as had been the norm prior to this season.
It is not quite clear why the CFP title game could not take place on the prior Wednesday, Thursday or even Friday, all days of the week on which title games have been played. The most-watched title game, the 2006 Texas-USC Rose Bowl, was played on a Wednesday night. The third-most watched, Alabama-Texas in 2010, was played on a Thursday. The fourth-most watched, the 2003 Ohio State-Miami Fiesta Bowl, was played on a Friday.
The CFP has not announced dates yet for the rest of the 2026-27 playoff. There is no set format yet for the 2026-27 season, meaning it is entirely possible that there will be an additional round of playoffs in an expanded 14 or 16-team field.
College football will now crown its national champion in the final week of January, which for years was the week of the Super Bowl. As recently as 2003, the Super Bowl took place on January 26 — just one day later than the ’27 CFP title game.
