Report: College Football Playoff decides on championship site for 2025, 2026; adds new host city

The College Football Playoff is branching out to a new host site for the championship game, while keeping an old one around, according to a report from The Action Network’s Brett McMurphy.

McMurphy reported Thursday that the College Football Playoff has come to agreements for its 2025 and 2026 national championship games, which will be hosted in Las Vegas and Miami, respectively. The game in Las Vegas would be hosted in Allegiant Stadium, the home of the Las Vegas Raiders, while the Miami contest would be held in Hard Rock Stadium.

The report also added that the College Football Playoff title game will be held on Jan. 6 or Jan. 20, 2025, in Las Vegas and on Jan. 5 or Jan. 18, 2026, in Miami, depending on whether the College Football Playoff expands. If the current four-team field expands, perhaps to the proposed 12-team field, the playoff itself would last longer and not conclude until the later date.

Hard Rock Stadium in Miami hosted the 2021 College Football Playoff national championship game, where No. 1 Alabama defeated No. 3 Ohio State, 52-24. When Hard Rock hosts the national title game in 2026, it will become the first two-time host of the College Football Playoff final. The last championship game at Hard Rock Stadium, however, was limited to just 14,900 fans in attendance, roughly 20 percent capacity, due to COVID-19. McMurphy said that College Football Playoff decision-makers wanted to award Miami with a second chance at hosting the national title game because fo the financial hardships incurred by the COVID-impacted season.

Allegiant Stadium and Las Vegas have never held a BCS Championship or College Football Playoff game, and 2025 will be its first. Allegiant Stadium is also set to host the NFL’s Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11, 2024, so the brand-new site will host both the NFL and college football playoff championship games in just 11 months.

The 2021-22 College Football Playoff national championship game will be held on Monday in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. The next two national championship games are scheduled to kick off in SoFi Stadium (Inglewood, California) and NRG Stadium (Houston, Texas).

Past College Football Playoff championship game sites

2014-2015: Ohio State – 42, Oregon – 20; AT&T Stadium (Arlington, Texas)

2015-2016: Alabama – 45, Clemson – 40; University of Phoenix Stadium (Glendale, Arizona)

2016-2017: Clemson – 35, Alabama – 31; Raymond James Stadium (Tampa, Florida)

2017-2018: Alabama – 26, Georgia – 23; Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta, Georgia)

2018-2019: Clemson – 44, Alabama – 16; Levi’s Stadium (Santa Clara, California)

2019-2020: LSU – 42, Clemson – 25; Mercedes-Benz Superdome (New Orleans, Louisiana)

2020-2021: Alabama – 52, Ohio State – 24; Hard Rock Stadium (Miami, Florida)