Cowboys Stadium gets first title game
The first championship game in the College Football Playoff will be held at Cowboys Stadium.
THE FIRST championship game in the College Football Playoff will be held at Cowboys Stadium.
The BCS conference commissioners announced Wednesday that Arlington, Texas, edged Tampa, Fla., in the bidding to be the site of the first title game in the new playoff system.
The game will be held Jan. 12, 2015.
The final three sites for the semifinal rotation also were announced and Cowboys Stadium came up a winner again. The Cotton Bowl, which is played at the $1.2 billion home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, will be part of the six-bowl rotation, along with the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta and the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz.
The Rose, Orange and Sugar bowls are already part of the semifinal rotation. The Rose and Sugar will host the first semifinals Jan. 1, 2015. The next season, the Cotton and Orange bowls will host the semifinals on New Year's Eve. The semis will be played in the Fiesta and Chick-fil-A bowls after the 2016 season.
In other college football news:
* Temple's season-opening game at Notre Dame will kick off at 3:30 p.m. on Aug. 31 from Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Ind. The game will be televised by NBC.
In college basketball news:
* Injured Penn State point guard Tim Frazier has been granted a medical hardship waiver by the NCAA for a fifth year of eligibility. Frazier sat out all but four games last season because of a left Achilles' injury. He was the second-leading scorer in the Big Ten the previous season at 18.8 points per game.
* Louisville guard Russ Smith is passing on the NBA draft to return for his senior season, aiming to become his family's first college graduate. Smith's decision contradicts father Russ Sr.'s declaration after the Cardinals' NCAA championship win over Michigan that his son would enter the draft. Smith led Louisville (35-5) with 18.7 points per game, including 22.3 in the NCAA Tournament . . . C.J. Fair, Syracuse's leading scorer and rebounder last season, will return for his senior season . . . Southern California junior center Dewayne Dedmon said he's leaving school to enter the draft. He led the Trojans in rebounding, blocks and steals this season.
Horse Racing *
Storm Cat, the thoroughbred stallion who once commanded one of the highest breeding fees in North America, died at Overbrook Farm in Lexington, Ky. He was 30.