NCAA Football Championships
Mercedes-Benz SuperdomeCharter a Private Jet to the NCAA Football Championships
The road to the NCAA Championship begins at the start of football season with 128 NCAA Division 1 teams. Only four of those teams will make the playoffs that determine the national champion.
Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium will play host for the 2017-2018 NCAA Football Bowl Championship Game – thought by many to be the greatest football game of the year -- for the first time since the structure of playoffs changed in the 2014-2015 season.
The only other venues already determined are Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., for the 2018-2019 season; and the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, La., for the 2019-2020 season.
We can get you there
If you’d like to experience college football’s greatest game of the year, Paramount Business Jets can arrange a charter flight for you into any airport near Atlanta, Santa Clara, or New Orleans.
- Lhasa-Gonggar, ZULS, Lhasa, China (67 miles)
Get a Quick Quote Online and Book
Your Jet Early!
Booking early has many advantages. Enter a few details below to start planning your private jet flight to the NCAA Football Championships.
A little history
The College Football Playoff series, which started in the 2013-2014 season, was created to try to quell the outcry of many who thought the Bowl Championship Series’ mathematical system of naming the teams that would play for the championship too difficult to understand.
And the BCS had been created in 1997 for similar reasons. For decades before that, the champion was determined by the AP and Coaches polls. It used a complex equation of polls and computer rankings to find the two teams that would play for the championship. That also rankled many, including the AP pollsters.
And, so, in 2014, the college football playoff was put back in the hands of human judges. A committee of 13, the number thought large enough to represent a diversity of viewpoints from different geographical locations but not too large to be unwieldy, selects the four playoff teams. More than 30 million viewers tuned in to watch, which the NCAA deemed a measure of success.
Highlights of the 2017 NCAA Football Championship Game
Each of the 10 FBS conferences can nominate 10 people.
The committee consists of football experts, including:
- Coaches
- Student-athletes
- University administrators
- Journalists
- Athletic directors
Committee members are not required to attend games but extensively watch videos. It takes them seven rounds of discussion and votes to get to the Top 25 rankings.
- Among the things they consider are:
- Conference championship winners
- Strength of schedule
- Matchup results
- Results against the same opponents
- Independent research
- Statistical data (from SportSource Analytics)
After those Top 25 teams are ranked, the committee fulfills its mission by:
- Choosing the top four teams.
- Assigning the teams to New Year’s bowls, making the most competitive matchups.
- Attempting to avoid rematches of regular-season games and trying to keep teams from appearing in the same bowl repeatedly.
Since the playoffs started, only four teams have appeared, Alabama and Clemson matching up in both 2015 and 2016, each winning once.
Here are the CFP championship results:
2014-2015
- Ohio State 42
- Oregon 20
2015-2016
- Alabama 45
- Clemson 40
2016-2017
- Clemson 35
- Alabama 31
Many critics want the four-team playoff expanded to at least eight teams. Even if that does happen, it won’t be until 2026, when the agreement for the four-team playoff ends.
Upcoming Schedule
The venues for the playoffs have been determined through the 2019-2020 season:
2017-2018
Semifinals Jan. 1, 2018
- Rose Bowl (Pasadena, Calif.) /events/rose-bowl
- Sugar Bowl (New Orleans, La.) /events/sugar-bowl
National Championship: Jan. 8, 2018, Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta, Ga.)
2018-2019
Semifinals Dec. 29, 2018
- Cotton Bowl (Arlington, Texas) /events/sugar-bowl
- Orange Bowl (Miami Gardens, Fla.) /events/orange-bowl
National Championship: Jan. 7, 2019, Levi's Stadium (Santa Clara, Calif.)
2019-2020
Semifinals Jan. 1, 2020
- Peach Bowl (Atlanta, Ga.)
- Fiesta Bowl (Tempe, Ariz.) /events/fiesta-bowl
National Championship: Jan. 13, 2020, Mercedes-Benz Superdome (New Orleans, La.)
By the way
Perhaps the most surprising member of the 13-member selection committee is Condoleezza Rice, who was secretary of state under George W. Bush. She was selected in the “university administrator” category because she is a former provost of Stanford – and also a huge college football (Stanford) fan. During the voting rounds of picking the Top 25, Stanford is greyed-out to her. She is not allowed to vote on the Cardinals.