CFP Director: NFL 'Committed' to Collaborating on Future Schedules to Avoid Overlap

CFP executive director Rich Clark spoke with reporters Saturday, two days before Ohio State and Notre Dame are set to meet in the national championship.

The topic of potential future scheduling conflicts with the NFL was brought up, and Clark had said he's talked to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the two sides plan to formulate a plan that lets both parties "succeed."

There was an overlap on one day this year.

The NFL scheduled a pair of games on Saturday, Dec. 21, when the Kansas City Chiefs hosted the Houston Texans at 1 p.m. ET and the Baltimore Ravens hosted the Pittsburgh Steelers at 4:30 p.m.

On that same day, the CFP held a first-round tripleheader at noon (SMU at Penn State), 4 p.m. (Clemson at Texas) and 8 p.m. (Tennessee and Ohio State).

There were no other conflicts otherwise.

The CFP schedule has already been set for the 2025 season. It's the same idea as 2024, with one first-round game set for Friday, Dec. 19 before a first-round tripleheader ensues on Saturday, Dec. 20.

The Cotton Bowl will take place on Wed., Dec. 31 before three more quarterfinal games occur on New Year's Day. The semifinals will occur on Thursday, Jan. 8 and Friday, Jan. 9 before the national championship goes down on Monday, Jan. 19.

The only potential conflict would appear to be on Saturday, Dec. 20 if the NFL decides to play games on Saturdays in late December again.

This year, the NFL put a quartet of teams on that Saturday to give them an extra day of rest before having a two-game set on Christmas Day (Wednesday).

The league doesn't necessarily have to do that this year if they want to play on Christmas Day 2025, which lands on a Thursday. The league has taken a liking to late-December games on Saturdays, though, so perhaps that trend continues.

The NFL could easily avoid that, though, if it wants to prevent a conflict with the CFP. We'll find out down the road what the NFL decides with the schedule presumably dropping in May. There's no date set yet, but last year's was released on May 15.