Will the date of the Orange Bowl change for Penn State because of the day-delayed Sugar Bowl?
The Orange Bowl will be played on Jan. 9 as planned, a College Football Playoff spokesperson confirmed to Blue-White Illustrated on Thursday.
“We will not be moving the Orange or Cotton Bowls,” College Football Playoff Senior Director of Communications and Branding Brett Daniels said in an email.
Some have wondered if the date of the Orange Bowl might be flipped with that of the Cotton Bowl, which is the site of the other CFP semifinal that will be played Jan. 10 in Dallas and feature Texas vs. Ohio State, because the final quarterfinal game, the Sugar Bowl, was moved back one day following a deadly truck attack in New Orleans on Wednesday. The winner of that game, which is set to be played at 4 p.m. today between Georgia and Notre Dame, faces Penn State in Miami.
With everything status quo, Penn State will have a two-day rest edge over either the Bulldogs or Fighting Irish after beating Boise State 31-14 in Tuesday night’s Fiesta Bowl. It’s worth pointing out, though, that both teams had a week off in December. Georgia did so by earning a first-round bye. And Notre Dame, which is an Independent, was off during conference championship weekend.
No matter, the time off angle is certainly going to be discussed heavily in the leadup to kickoff. That is at 7:30 p.m. ET next Thursday at Hard Rock Stadium.
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New Sugar Bowl start time was picked with the Orange Bowl in mind
The Sugar Bowl was originally set for 8:45 p.m. ET on Jan. 1. Originally, it was believed that the postponed contest would kickoff at the same time, just on Jan. 2. But, ESPN reports that both teams lobbied for an earlier start time. That’s why kickoff is now at 4 p.m. ET today.
“The reason why they landed at 4 p.m. eastern, three central is because there is an extremely quick turnaround for whichever team wins this game into the Orange Bowl, which is a week away so less time to prepare for the team that will play Penn State in that game,” ESPN reporter Laura Rutledge said on Thursday’s ‘Get Up’ show.
“As you said so well, all of that pales in comparison to what happened here and the tragedy, certainly, that occurred. But these teams did have to think about the schedule and doing what’s best for the athletes and everybody involved, right. The postponement of 24 hours? At first, we thought that meant it would be a true 24 hours, it would be a game happening tonight but we started to get word that both teams, especially, were pushing toward the earlier start time, as early as possible start time, for today.”
Penn State is back in State College
The staff is surely spending time preparing for both the Bulldogs and Fighting Irish. It will be able to evaluate the tape live as it prepares for the semifinals. Penn State stayed in Arizona Tuesday night and flew home to State College on Wednesday. The team will leave for Miami in the afternoon next Tuesday.
