by Fitzgerald Cecilio

Pasadena, CA

The commissioners of the Bowl Championship Series announced that the four-team playoff will be known as College Football Playoff and have determined the national championship venues and the bowl rotation.

The College Football Playoff begins after the 2014 regular season.

The Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, will be the venue of college football playoff's first national championship, to be held Jan. 12, 2015.

Bill Hancock, executive director of the College Football Playoff, said Arlington was awarded the first game over Tampa because of Cowboys Stadium, which can hold more than 100,000 fans.

Hancock said the first year of the College Football Playoff will feature back-to-back tripleheaders on Dec. 31 (Cotton, Orange, Fiesta bowls) and Jan. 1 (Chick-fil-A, Rose, Sugar). The Rose and Sugar bowls will be the national semifinals.

ESPN paid an average of $470 million annually for the rights to the 12-year College Football Playoff, sources said.

The official vote and announcement of the first title game and semifinal sites were made Wednesday from the Langham Hotel in Pasadena.

The semifinal rotation has been determined as follows: The Rose (Pasadena) and Sugar (New Orleans) bowls will host the semifinals on Jan. 1, 2015; Jan. 1, 2018; Jan. 1, 2021; and Jan. 1, 2024; the Orange (Miami) and Cotton (Arlington) bowls will host on Dec. 31, 2015; Dec. 31, 2018; Dec. 31, 2021; and Dec. 31, 2024; and the Fiesta (Glendale) and Chick-fil-A (Atlanta) bowls will host on Dec. 31, 2016; Dec. 31, 2019; Dec. 31, 2022; and Dec. 31, 2025..

The championship game dates (all played on Mondays) are: Jan. 12, 2015; Jan. 11, 2016; Jan. 9, 2017; Jan. 8, 2018; Jan. 7, 2019; Jan. 13, 2020; Jan. 11, 2021; Jan. 10, 2022; Jan. 9, 2023; Jan. 8, 2024; Jan. 13, 2025; and Jan. 12, 2026.

In years the Rose, Sugar and Orange bowls do not host the national semifinals, they will get the highest-ranked team from their respective conference tie-ins: Rose (Pac-12 vs. Big Ten), Sugar (SEC vs. Big 12) and Orange (ACC vs. highest-ranked from SEC/Big Ten/Notre Dame).

The playoff also initiated voting for the logo for the series, which will continue through Monday.

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BCS Commissioners Agree on Playoff Name and Venues