GLENDALE, Ariz. – The matchup is set for a tantalizing College Football Playoff title game.
On one side, 2018 national champion Clemson, with its 29-game winning streak. On the other, unbeaten and top-seeded LSU, with its record-setting offense and sensational senior quarterback Joe Burrow, the Heisman Trophy winner.
But first, we interrupt this playoff for a 15-day break that is far from ideal.
These teams of 14-0 Tigers – Atlantic Coast Conference champion Clemson and Southeastern Conference champion LSU – will play the final game of the 2019 season on Jan. 13 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans after winning their semifinals Saturday night.
Burrow accounted for eight touchdowns as LSU took down No. 4 Oklahoma 63-28 in an early laugher at the Peach Bowl. Clemson rallied to beat No. 2 Ohio State 29-23 in a late thriller at the Fiesta Bowl.
“The challenge is keeping the conversation in the forefront against two weeks of NFL (playoff games),” said Nick Dawson, ESPN’s vice president of programming and acquisitions.
ESPN will try to keep the college football conversation going during its telecasts of lower-level bowl games. The LendingTree Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, matching Louisiana-Lafayette and Miami (Ohio) on Jan. 6, will essentially be a three-hour promo for Clemson-LSU.
“We launch with a championship game spot on Monday and have really two weeks to run it and really sell the matchup,” Dawson said. “We think that could be an advantage for us.”
ESPN also will have the final three episodes of “Inside the College Football Playoff” available on its subscription online streaming service, ESPN+. The series that goes behind the scenes with teams will now follow Clemson and LSU as they prepare for the championship game.
LSU football coach Ed Orgeron celebrates after the top-seeded Tigers routed No. 4 Oklahoma 63-28 in the Peach Bowl semifinal Saturday in Atlanta. / AP photo by John AmisThe CFP schedule did not end up here by design. It was a correction.
When the format was crafted by Football Bowl Subdivision conference commissioners ahead of the 2014 season, they decided the semifinals would be played on Dec. 31 two out of every three years. The semifinals would rotate through six bowl games, and when they were played at the Rose and Sugar bowls, as they will be next season, the games would be on Jan. 1.
That’s the perfect spot: a national holiday when most people are off from work, being couch potatoes after ringing in the New Year.
Yet the conferences that partner with the Rose (Pac-12 and Big Ten) and Sugar (Southeastern and Big 12) bowls chose to lock their showcase games into those Jan. 1 time slots for the 12-year duration of the playoff – even when they weren’t hosting semifinals.
That led to the ill-fated idea to reinvent New Year’s Eve as a night to watch college football. It did not work, and after one season the plan was scrapped. Future schedules in which the semifinals were planned to be played on Dec. 31 were moved to the closest Saturday, unless New Year’s Eve was a Saturday.
This year’s schedule became particularly problematic because while the semifinals could be moved up to Dec. 28, the championship game could not be moved from Jan. 13. CFP officials have said the Superdome was not able to accommodate the switch, which would have provided a more normal eight-day lead-up.
Instead, the teams have more than two weeks between games, and two rounds of NFL playoffs will be played in the meantime.
In a news conference Friday ahead of the Fiesta Bowl, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney and Ohio State coach Ryan Day said they would prefer consistency in playoff scheduling and that the semifinals would always be played on Jan. 1.
“I know that the schedule, the NFL or whatever, I don’t know what all dictates all that stuff, but this year’s been a little different because of the way it was laid out and the national championship (game),” Swinney said Friday. “There’s a bye week this year. That’s another difference that the teams are going to have to manage in preparation for that, because it is a little unique.”
CFP executive director Bill Hancock said he was not concerned about fans losing interest due to the longer layoff.
“I don’t think so, because the championship game is so big and I learned a long time ago not to worry about things you can’t control,” he said. “I think the coaches are going to appreciate it. More time to get ready. More time to rest up.”
For LSU, running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire has been nursing a hamstring injury. He played sparingly in the blowout of Oklahoma and looked OK.
For Clemson, quarterback Trevor Lawrence took some shots carrying the ball a career-high 16 times in the intense, hard-hitting game against Ohio State. Also banged up were the Tigers’ top two receivers, with Tee Higgins evaluated for a concussion and Justyn Ross dealing with an arm injury.
“We’re going to celebrate this one and then give these guys a couple of days off,” Swinney said Saturday night. “Then we’re going to get focused on trying to find a way to win one more. It’s going to be a heck of a task, but we’re thankful that we got the opportunity.”