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Colin Cowherd critical of College Football Playoff schedule, excessive down time

Brian Jones Profile Picby: Brian Jones06/02/26brianjones_93

Colin Cowherd is not a fan of the 2026-27 College Football Playoff schedule for one big reason. On X/Twitter, the FS1 host shared his reaction to the playoff schedule that starts on Dec. 18 and ends on Jan. 25.

“Waaaay too much time between games,” Colin Cowherd wrote. When Cowherd shared his thoughts, many fans agreed with him.

One fan wrote, “Exactly. Why I don’t understand the insistence on odd-number playoff spots, resulting in bye weeks. Completely unnecessary.”

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Another fan added, “I could understand if it was a 10-day window and pushing the weekends out, but there’s 2 full weeks between the quarters and semis. Makes no sense.”

The first-round playoff games will be played on Dec. 18 and Dec. 19 and will feature the teams that seeded No. 5 to No. 12. The top four teams have a bye in the first round and won’t play until the end of December. The first quarterfinals game will be on Dec. 30, and the remaining three games will be played on New Year’s Day.

Has the College Football Playoff schedule impacted Georgia?

The four teams who win the quarterfinal games will not play again for another two weeks. The first semifinal game will be on Jan. 14 and the second will be on Jan. 15. That leaves the championship game, which will be played at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Jan. 25.

The extra time off has been discussed since teams who have byes in the first round tend to struggle in the playoffs. A team that knows all about this is the Georgia Bulldogs since they are the only program to have a first-round bye in the last two playoffs. In both seasons, the Bulldogs have lost in the quarterfinals, and they have not won a playoff game since winning the national championship game in January 2023.

“I am a big fan of continuing the season in continual motion, meaning taking out the long break,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said last week, per DawgNation. “I don’t think football is played to have a 24-, 27-day break … it’s not a matter of my independent want or need or success. It’s about what’s best, and football is not meant to be played in a month gap.”

The Jan. 25, 2027, date for the national championship game is the latest ever in college football. If the playoffs are expanded to 24 teams, the season could start sooner, which could then lead to an earlier start to postseason play. It will be interesting to see how things play out in the next couple of years.