Ohio State AD Ross Bjork reveals how College Football Playoff will handle in-game environment for home teams

Make no mistake, the College Football Playoff will be running the show inside the Horseshoe when No. 8 seeded Ohio State hosts No. 9 seeded Tennessee in first round action Dec. 21.

Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork revealed that while the Buckeyes would be responsible for gameday staffing and administrative duties for their opening-round Playoff game vs. the Volunteers, the College Football Playoff will be in charge of the music and entertainment side of things for all first-round Playoff games.

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Case in point, Tennessee will have an entrance video played on the Ohio State video board when they enter the field pregame, something the Buckeyes don’t generally allow for opposing teams.

“The in-game atmosphere will be a little bit more controlled by the CFP. Our staff will do it, but the scripting, how music is played,” Bjork said Thursday on Columbus-based 97.1 FM, according to On3’s Pete Nakos. “Like Tennessee will have an intro video when their team runs on the field. We wouldn’t do that for a normal visiting team. But we’ll be able to do a lot of similar things we do now. The script will be a little more tame than what the CFP will allow.”

Penn State head coach James Franklin recently explained how the CFP’s control over first-round games will also impact recruiting opportunities for host teams. The sixth-seeded Nittany Lions host No. 11 seed SMU at 12 pm ET, Dec. 21 inside Beaver Stadium.

“Although this is a Penn State home game, it is not our game,” Franklin said. “This game is really run by the Playoff and we don’t even control the tickets. So, we don’t get recruiting tickets. We don’t get anything. All the ticket revenue goes to the College Football Playoff. Although it is a home game for us, we don’t gain any advantages that way.”

This creates a situation where Penn State, or any of the other schools that are hosting a Playoff game, won’t be able to directly provide access to the game for recruits and their families. However, for the coaching staff, there is still a way to showcase this type of game to recruits even if they’re not on campus.

“If recruits want to come to the game, they’re welcome to come to the game, but they’re going to have to buy their own tickets and those types of things. It’s not like a home game where we’re able to provide tickets and things like that,” Franklin continued. “So, there’s advantages, but not as much of an advantage from a recruiting perspective as people may think, other than, obviously, really good players are still able to watch us continue to play this season.”

College GameDay announces two shows for CFP opening round

ESPN’s College GameDay announced two stops for the first round of the College Football Playoff: Notre Dame and Ohio State.

ESPN’s wildly-popular pregame show decided to double dip for the opening round of the 12-team Playoff, first appearing in South Bend for the Dec. 20 game between No. 7 seeded Notre Dame and No. 10 seed Indiana at 8 pm ET on ABC/ESPN. The next day, the College GameDay crew will be in Columbus ahead of the Ohio State-Tennessee game at 8 pm ET on ABC/ESPN.

Nick Kosko and Dan Morrison contributed to this report.