HOST TO
THE OFFICIAL E-NEWSLETTER OF THE STADIUM EVENTS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
|
ISSUE 1 • AUGUST 12, 2014
DAWN OF A NEW ERA
With the advent of the first College Football Playoff National Championship history will be made on North Texas soil this January 12 BY JAIME ARON
T
he landscape of college football — no, make that the nation’s entire sports scene — is getting a new look. A shiny marvel is rising like a skyscraper over an already bustling downtown. After years of waiting, fans are getting exactly what they hoped for: a playoff featuring two semifinals that feed into a national championship game, with the inaugural edition to be played right here in North Texas. That’s right: On Jan. 12, 2015, the first national champion in this new era of college football will be crowned in our back yard, at SPREADING THE WORD: Tommy Bain, chairman of the SEOC, sits in with George Dunham AT&T Stadium. The game will be and Craig Miller on SportsRadio 1310 The Ticket. televised on ESPN. “The conference commissioners of those de facto title games was Outcomes like that — have listened to a lot of feedback played in Fair Park on Jan. 2, 1978. championships decided by voters and delivered a system On that cold, sunny and, later, computers — left that gives everyone day, Joe Montana and everyone clamoring for a better what they wanted,” fifth-ranked Notre way of deciding the best team said Michael Kelly, the Dame upset Heisman in the land. What began in the Chief Operating Officer Trophy winner Earl early 1990s as the Bowl Coalition of the College Football Campbell and topbecame the Bowl Alliance, then Playoff organization. ranked Texas 38-10. became the Bowl Championship “Now that it’s here, The Fighting Irish Series. Flawed as they all people are awfully rode that romp, plus were, each iteration offered an excited about it. We a wave of upsets, all improvement, culminating in this want to make sure it’s the way to the top of highly anticipated new system. as special as it can be the final polls. It was So, how exactly does it work? The last National because we’ve got a dramatic rise, and A 13-person selection committee Championship to be high expectations for a questionable one will choose a top 25 based on decided in North Texas what it will become.” for fans of Alabama, several factors including strength was in 1978 when Notre Championships Dame ran past Texas in which went into its of schedule, head-to-head results, the Cotton Bowl. have been crowned bowl game ranked how they fared against common around here before, of third, beat the ninthopponents, whether they won course, back in the glory days of ranked team and only moved up to division and/or conference the Cotton Bowl. The most recent second. championships … and more.
www.stadiumeoc.com