3. Four sites win CFB title games

Miami Gardens, Fla., Indianapolis, Inglewood, Calif., and Houston have been awarded the College Football Playoff national championship games from 2021 through 2024. This season’s game, of course, will be at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Jan. 8. Next year’s game will be at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., and the 2020 game will be played at the Superdome in New Orleans.

The College Football Playoff national championship game will be held in Miami Gardens, Florida, Indianapolis, Inglewood, California, and Houston from 2021 through 2024.

“We’re delighted that we’re able to complete our goal of 10 in 10,” College Football Playoff Executive Director Bill Hancock said Wednesday. “The first 10 College Football Playoff championship games will be played in 10 different cities.”

Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens will host the 2021 title game, after the 2020 season. Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis will be the first cold-weather site for the championship in 2022.

“We just kept asking ourselves, ‘Why not go north?’” Hancock said, adding that Indianapolis has successfully hosted the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four and a Super Bowl in recent years.

The new stadium in Southern California that will be the home of the NFL’s Rams and Chargers will be the site of the 2023 title game, followed the next year by NRG Stadium in Houston.

This season’s title game will be in Atlanta at the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which landed the game even before it was built — as the Inglewood stadium has done.

“When we finished our presentation, we felt like we had been inside the stadium itself,” Hancock said. “This will be a world-class facility.”

Next year’s national championship game will be at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. The 2020 game will be at the Superdome in New Orleans. The previous sites were AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas; University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona; and Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

Hancock said the playoff did not request formal proposals from cities that had already expressed interest in previous title games. He said about eight to 10 cities had shown interest in hosting.