The College Football Playoff national championship will be staged in Las Vegas in 2027 and the group’s executive director is ready to go all-in on making it the best version in the event’s history.
CFP executive director Rich Clark was presented a light bulb that once lit up on the city’s fame Welcome to Las Vegas sign on Tuesday, signaling the start of a year-long process that will culminate in the college football’s pinnacle event taking place on Jan. 25, 2027, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
Before next year’s title game occurs, the CFP will decide on whether or not to expand the field that will vie to make it to Las Vegas, going from the current 12-team format to 16 teams. That decision is expected to occur by the end of the week.
Here’s what Clark told the Review-Journal about the 2027 Las Vegas title game, expanding the playoff field and his experience taking in Super Bowl 58 at Allegiant Stadium with his dad.
RJ:
During the 2022 NFL Draft NFL commissioner Roger Goodell called the event that year “Better than perfect.” Are you guys looking for a better than perfect CFP coming up in ‘27 in Vegas?
Clark:
That’s what we’re aiming for. I mean, we believe that you have to elevate your performance. You have to every year get better and Miami was spectacular. It really was a great venue for us. The city, the Dolphins, the host committee, everyone involved just made it great. And the fans, whether they were at the game or whether they were participating in some of our peripheral events, were just amazing.
But we want to get better. I mean, we need to be better next year. And we think that Vegas will be able to help us to get there. So, it’s always our goal to get better every season and be better than we were the last season. So, (Monday’s game) wasn’t perfect, neither was the whole week perfect, but it was outstanding and we just want to take it to the next level.
RJ:
Some aspects of CFP week in Miami are bit spread out. Las Vegas is basically jam-packed in about 6 miles of hotel rooms, convention space, and the stadium. On average, about 60 percent of fans walk over from the Strip to the stadium for events, and there are no long drives. What’s the benefit of having compact venue in Las Vegas?
Clark:
My dad and I went to the Super Bowl there (in Las Vegas) in ‘24 and we walked everywhere. We just had such an amazing time. We participated in some of the other events. We went to a show. We ate some great meals at some great restaurants and then we went to the game. And we didn’t have to have a car. We didn’t have to take an Uber. We didn’t have to get on a bus. We walked.
Having that sort of compact nature of the area where the stadium is located is just incredible. It’s a great thing to make for an excellent week in Vegas and for our champ game. So I think Vegas is ideally situated. And in that 6 miles, there’s so many things to do, whether it’s our event or just Vegas and you just want to do some of the things I just talked about, a show, a dinner, go to the casinos, whatever it might be, it’s there for you.
RJ:
It’s been said by tourism officials that more visitors are in Las Vegas watching the CFP championship each year than there are people who visit a host city for the game. What will it be like to bring the actual game to an epicenter where people are already converging?
Clark:
Yeah, it’s exciting because, like you said, people are already there and some of them won’t buy tickets to the game. But it just brings attention to the CFP. It helps to elevate us to another level and Vegas is becoming not just a destination city for big events, but a destination city for big sporting events. You have the Raiders there now, you have the Golden Knights there, the A’s are coming, the Super Bowl is there. There’s just so much big sports and so many people that love sports that go there for other things that it’s natural for the CFP to to have a game there and to showcase what we do and let people see it.
RJ:
What does the work look like for you between now and when the game occurs in 2027? Will there be an expanded playoff leading up to next year’s title game?
Clark:
We’ve already been in Vegas. I mean, we’ve already started our site visits and getting to know the team for the LVCVA. Beginning to understand our city officials and the security apparatus there and all those officials. So, we’ve already started to prepare and plan even while we were getting ready for Miami, but now we’ll do that in earnest and we’ll start coming on a very regular basis to get ready for that game.
But there’s also the other games of the CFP that we have to make sure that we’re getting lined up, whether it’s the first round, the quarters, the semifinals, we still have to make sure that we’re all set with those games as well.
And then our selection process, we always evaluate that and try to evolve that. And as everyone knows, we’re looking at our format and to know whether that format will change or not, we should know here in a few days.
If it does change, there’ll be some work there that we’re going to have to do. If it doesn’t change and we stay with the 12-team playoff, that’s spectacular because we love the format. But if we do get another better format (16-team), we’ll have to make some adjustments there. So, there’s a lot ahead of us over the coming months, until we really start to prepare for the next championship game.
So a lot of work to do, but we’re going to be spending a lot of time in Vegas and I’m excited about it. Love, love my Raiders. I’m also an A’s fan; so that’s going to be pretty cool whenever that happens. But we have a lot of work to do and we’re excited though for the next chapter.
RJ:
You mentioned the possibility expanding the playoffs. There’s been some talk of trying to get the Las Vegas Bowl in that mix. Is that also part of the conversation?
Clark:
Hard to know how that’s going to play out. Once we decide on the format, then we’ll figure out where the venues are and whether they’re home games or whether we go to other bowl venues. We’ll have to look at that. But those decisions haven’t been made yet. It’s now just about do we want to expand to more games or not? And that’s the first question we have to answer.
RJ:
There’s talks about Super Bowl likely returning to Las Vegas in 2029, which would be five years after Las Vegas hosted its first Super Bowl. Would you see a similar track with CFP championship game?
Clark:
Hard to know. We don’t have any kind of set rotation right now. We try to go to different communities and different venues around the country geographically because it’s good for us to be in that community so that people build some awareness about CFP and who we are. We’re trying to elevate our brand to another level right now. And so, we’ll look at all venues and go through the process of where the sites will be over the coming years, but there’s not a set rotation for that.
RJ:
This was a little different hand off ceremony with showgirls and Las Vegas glitz. Was that to plant the seed for what Vegas has to offer next year.
Clark:
Viva Las Vegas, you guys do it. That’s what you do. The glitz and glamour of Vegas is something that is going to just add to the character of our game because every city that we go to, we want to bring the vibe of that city to our game. And that’s what you guys do. In Miami, it was about bright colors and beach and everything that Miami has to offer. Vegas just gives us something different. Vegas does it like nobody else does, and people love it. Entertainment capital of the world, at least one of them, and we want to be a part of that.
Contact Mick Akers at [email protected] or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.
