College Football Playoff Selection Show 2014: Date, Start Time, Live Stream Info

All the guessing and projecting will be over on Sunday, Dec. 7. The college football universe will find out the teams that will participate in the inaugural College Football Playoff.

ESPN will broadcast the historic event exclusively. The program begins at 12:30 p.m. ET, but the announcement won't come until 12:45. In the event you can't watch it on TV, you can see the live stream at Watch ESPN.

This is the first year the FBS national championship will be decided in a tournament format. Some people, like former WWE Superstar John Bradshaw Layfield, are already criticizing the process.

While a four-team field isn't ideal, it's a step in the right direction. What the FCS schools do to determine their champion is what many major college football fans fantasize about being adopted by the FBS.

Imagine what a 24-team field would look like in the FBS? Even a 16-team field with 12 conference champions getting automatic bids, and four more going to wild-card teams.

That tournament would take over the American sports scene for a month. Perhaps one day in the future that will become a reality.

For now, we must settle for football's version of the Final Four. Here's the panel who will decide the top four teams:

• Arkansas Razor Backs athletic director Jeff Long
• Southern California Trojans athletic director Pat Haden
• Clemson Tigers athletic director Dan Radakovich
• Wisconsin Badgers athletic director Barry Alvarez
• West Virginia Mountaineers athletic director Oliver Luck
• Former Nebraska Cornhuskers coach Tom Osborne
• Former Stanford Cardinal, Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Washington Huskies coach Tyrone Willingham
• Former Big East Commissioner Mike Tranghese
• Former NCAA vice president Tom Jernstedt
• Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
• Former USA Today sportswriter Steve Wieberg
• Former Air Force superintendent and retired Lieutenant General Mike Gould
• Former Mississippi Rebels quarterback Archie Manning (had to step down due to health issues, but will not be replaced)

The Games

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The two national semifinals will still carry the names of two of the premier contests from the Bowl Championship Series. One will be the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California and the other the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Per the College Football Playoff official site, the teams will be sent to the bowl games based on a few factors.

Geography will weigh the heaviest.

The teams with the higher seeds will be sent to the most advantageous locations. For example, the USC Trojans—should they be in contention in the future—would have a larger turnout of their fans in Pasadena than they would in New Orleans.

Should they receive a higher seed, the Trojans would almost certainly be headed to the Rose Bowl. 

The same would be the case with the LSU Tigers in the Sugar Bowl.

Both semifinal games will be played on New Year's Day. The national-championship game will be played on January 12 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Check out the selection show to find out which four teams will be vying for the title.