CFP won’t flip dates of semis despite SEC request

The College Football Playoff will not flip the dates and times of the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic and the Capital One Orange Bowl after SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said Thursday he asked about the possibility of changing them.

With its 23-10 Allstate Sugar Bowl win against Georgia on Thursday, Notre Dame will face Penn State next Thursday in the Orange Bowl at 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN). On New Year’s Eve, Penn State advanced when it beat Boise State 31-14 in the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl.

The quarterfinal at the Sugar Bowl was delayed after a pickup truck attack in New Orleans that left 15 people dead and dozens more injured.

Sankey’s concern was a potential disadvantage for Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish will have to play on a shorter turnaround than Penn State, which hasn’t played since New Year’s Eve and thus will get a longer rest.

“We’re not going to flip the games,” CFP executive director Rich Clark told ESPN on Friday morning. “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. NOLA and Sugar Bowl officials were amazing.”

Texas needed double overtime to escape a gritty Arizona State team on New Year’s Day 39-31, and the Longhorns will face Ohio State, which trounced Oregon 41-21 in the Rose Bowl Game presented by Prudential, at 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN) on Jan. 10 in the Cotton Bowl Classic. Thursday, Sankey said on “The Paul Finebaum Show” that he had raised the issue of potentially changing the game and had asked decision-makers involved whether it would be possible.

“I recognize that’s difficult,” Sankey told Finebaum. “I don’t know if it is impossible. I raised that [Wednesday], and the focus quickly became today’s kickoff, today’s game and we’ll see what happens.

“This is not an SEC-related issue; it’s for both teams,” Sankey said. “I also know that the communities have dates, they have plans, there are stadium availability issues that can arise. What I’ve not heard back from anybody after having asked the question is really directly a yes or no answer to the question I asked.”

Clark told ESPN on Friday morning that the logistics of changing the games would be difficult.

“Logistics are very complicated, disruptive to the other teams involved that have schedules in place, especially Texas and Ohio State,” he said. “Fans have made arrangements already, and this creates issues for them. There’s more, but these are some of the major points.”

Sankey told Finebaum that he realizes this conversation resulted from an “unforeseen, unexpected, incredible horrible tragedy that has altered the schedule.”

“Sometimes, just like within a game, you have to adapt, you have to adjust,” Sankey said. “Right now with the schedule set, these teams will have to adjust their preparation based on the schedule that lies ahead.”