College Football Playoff makes huge decision against SEC

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish defeated the SEC champion Georgia Bulldogs in a thrilling Sugar Bowl on Thursday. The Irish’s win was their first major bowl win since 1993, a remarkable accomplishment for the program in the modern era. It’s their second College Football Playoff win too, but the first in the New Year’s Six. After the win, the SEC hoped to propose something that would have helped the Fighting Irish out.

But the College Football Playoff has spoken, and they’ve turned down that request.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey hoped to propose a resolution to flip the dates and times of the upcoming Orange Bowl between Notre Dame and Penn State as well as the Cotton Bowl between Texas and Ohio State. This request revolved around the fact that the Nittany Lions, winners of the Fiesta Bowl over Boise State on Dec. 31, would get more rest than the Fighting Irish amid undue circumstances.

Thursday’s Sugar Bowl was supposed to play on New Year’s Day. However, a tragic terrorist attack in New Orleans caused the game to be postponed until Thursday. The game was fortunately played without incident.

But even amid those undue circumstances, the College Football Playoff will not flip the dates of the games.

“We’re not going to flip the games. The concession we made with the athletic directors was to start the Sugar Bowl earlier — an 18-hour or so delay. We slipped the game 18 hours to ensure we could provide safety and security for teams, coaches, staffs, fans and others involved,” CFP executive director Rich Clark said via ESPN.com. “NOLA and Sugar Bowl officials were amazing.”

Clark cited logistics as the primary reason that they won’t flip the CFP games, addressing fan concerns from every fanbase.

“Logistics are very complicated, disruptive to the other teams involved that have schedules in place, especially Texas and Ohio State,” Clark said via ESPN.com. He added that “Fans have made arrangements already, and this creates issues for them.”

[ESPN]