CFP slate to begin Dec

The first year of the 12-team College Football Playoff will kick off with a first-round game on Dec. 20 and conclude with the title game one month later on in Atlanta, it was announced Wednesday.The 4 first-round CFP games will be Dec. 20 and 21. ABC and ESPN will telecast games on Friday and Saturday night with an 8 p.m. EST kickoff, while TNT will have the Dec. 21 afternoon games at 12 p.m. and 4 p.m. The afternoon games will take on a pair of NFL games with Houston-Kansas City at 1 p.m. and Baltimore-Pittsburgh at 4:30 p.m.”I think it will be fine for the NFL

and college football to exist side-by-side on that date,”Mike Mulvihill, Fox president for insights and analytics, said.”I think both events will rank simply fine. “Editor’s Picks 2 Related The 4 first-round

games, which will be played on college schools, will be revealed on Dec. 8. TNT has a set of games through a sublicense with ESPN.ESPN’s $7.8 billion deal with the CFP, which was announced in March, enabled it

to sublicense games to other networks. Financial regards to the sublicense were not announced.The quarterfinals, semifinals and championship will air on ESPN.The top four conference champions will receive first-round byes.

The quarterfinals will begin on Dec. 31 with the Carnival Bowl at

7:30 p.m. New Year’s Day will start with the Peach Bowl at 1 p.m. followed by the Rose Bowl in its conventional 5 p.m. area and the Sugar Bowl at 8:45 p.m.The semifinals are the Orange Bowl on Jan. 9 and Cotton Bowl on Jan. 10. Both have 7:30 p.m. begin times before the championship game occurs on Jan. 20 in Atlanta.ESPN will announce its

schedule for the majority of the championship game Thursday.