DESTIN, Fla. -- Despite the roaring success of first-round home games in the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey on Wednesday said a lot of factors support the continued inclusion of the major bowls in the next iteration of the CFP.
"My expectations will focus on those early rounds being on campus," Sankey said following the second day of the conference's spring meetings. "I think we're still working through later rounds, but a lot of issues around preparation and hosting that support bowls continuing to be a part of the experience. But, more to come."
This past fall, the higher seeds earned home games in the first round, and all four of them (Texas, Penn State, Ohio State and Notre Dame) won by double digits. According to announced attendance numbers at each game, almost 400,000 total fans attended first-round games.
Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte, who is the only athletic director at the league's meetings this week from a school that hosted a first-round CFP game, said that as far as being a proponent of more home games in future rounds, "I'm all-in on that action."
"I'm holding on that," Del Conte said. "The wear and tear on your fans, and the price of tickets and airlines at that time of year, it's really an expense. In the NFL, the higher-ranked team gets the home advantage. Having a home game and playing Clemson at home was unbelievable. Yet we're still married to that old bowl system for a moment. So you've got to give a little bit of grace as we go through this. But having a home game was great."
The 12-team playoff will have the same format this fall, with the higher seed earning the first-round home game. The difference this season will be a straight seeding format, which will award first-round byes to the selection committee's top four teams -- something that was reserved for the four highest-ranked conference champions last year.
This season, the Rose Bowl Game will start an hour earlier than its traditional window and kick off at 4 p.m. ET as part of a New Year's Day tripleheader of CFP quarterfinals on ESPN. The rest of the New Year's Day quarterfinals on ESPN include the Capital One Orange Bowl (noon ET) and the Allstate Sugar Bowl (8 p.m.), which also will start earlier than usual.
The Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, a CFP quarterfinal this year, will be played at 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN) on New Year's Eve. The VRBO Fiesta Bowl, a CFP semifinal, will be at 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN) on Thursday, Jan. 8, and the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl will host the other CFP semifinal at 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN) on Jan. 9.