<P> The College Football Playoff is not an officially sanctioned championship event by the NCAA, the sport's governing body . The NCAA has never recognized an official national championship for FBS football, instead merely recognizing the decisions made any of a number of independent major championship selectors . Consequently, Division I FBS football is the only NCAA sport in which a yearly national champion is not determined by an NCAA event, nor is an official NCAA national championship awarded . Nevertheless, the CFP's inception in 2014 marked the first time a major championship selector in football was able to determine their champion by using a bracket competition . </P> <P> A 13 - member committee selects and seeds the four teams to take part in the CFP . This system differs from the use of polls or computer rankings that had previously been used to select the participants for the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), the title system used in FBS from 1998 to 2013 . The current format is a Plus - One system, an idea which became popular as an alternative to the BCS after the 2003 and 2004 seasons ended in controversy . </P> <P> The two semifinal games rotate among six major bowl games, referred to as the New Year's Six: the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, and Peach Bowl . In addition to the four teams selected for the playoff, the final CFP rankings are used to help determine the participants for the other four New Year's Six bowls that are not hosting the semifinals that year . The semifinal games, which take place on the same day, are usually scheduled on Friday, Saturday, or Monday close to or on New Years Day, with flexibility allowed to ensure that they are not in conflict with other bowl games traditionally held on New Year's Day . The National Championship game is then played on the first Monday that is six or more days after the semifinals . </P> <P> The venue of the championship game is selected based on bids submitted by cities, similar to the Super Bowl or NCAA Final Four . The winner of the game is awarded the College Football Playoff National Championship Trophy . Playoff officials commissioned a new trophy that was unconnected with the previous championship systems, such as the AFCA "crystal football" trophy which had been regularly presented after the championship game since the 1990s . </P>

When does the playoff for college football start