Orange Bowl CEO on College Football Playoff quarterfinal, national championship being in South Florida
Bowl season is underway and two College Football Playoff games are set for Hard Rock Stadium – the quarterfinal on Jan. 1 and the championship on Jan. 19.
CBS Miami's Mike Cugno interviewed Eric Poms, CEO of the Orange Bowl, after the CFP 12-team fields were announced.
The following conversation was lightly edited for clarity. Watch their full interview in the player above.
Mike Cugno: How excited are you guys over there at the committee to see a new team, new blood, in the bracket and heading down to South Florida?
Eric Poms: In 92 years of the Capital One Orange Bowl, this is the first time Texas Tech has ever appeared, so it'll be a great stage for them coming down to South Florida, watching the game [on Dec. 6] against BYU. It's a formidable team, and so much excitement is coming out of Lubbock, Texas, coming down to South Beach.
Cugno: Now, when you do get these new teams that are coming to South Florida or to the Orange Bowl, obviously, fans are going to travel. How excited are you to see a new fan base, and what can they expect, not just in South Florida for the Orange Bowl, but for the big national title game as well a few weeks later?
Poms: So, it's a 12-team playoff model now, and there'll be a game on Saturday, Dec. 20, where James Madison will go to Eugene, Oregon and play the Oregon Ducks, the winner of which will play Texas Tech. And so we're going to have a buildup to this matchup. And you know, all three of these programs have never played in our game, so it'll be quite a stage that they'll be having here in South Florida. They're coming from places that [have] cold weather, so they're going to come down and enjoy the beaches and all the nightlife and all the amenities that South Florida has to offer. But it's a great stage, having the 12-team playoff. There are four rounds that lead up to the National Championship game. You know, it's a palpable excitement that builds as we work our way up to Jan. 19 at Hard Rock Stadium, [where] college football's premier game will be played.
Cugno: There's a lot of excitement leading up to the selection show from the fan bases, but take us to the Orange Bowl war room. Do you guys watch it like we do as fans?
Poms: We do, and you know, for the first 10 years of the CFP, it was a four-team model, so you knew on selection day who was in your semifinal matchup. This 12-team model will either have a quarter-final or a semifinal each and every year. Last year was a semifinal and so throughout the regular season, which games have impact, but ultimately it does come down to championship weekend. And as you saw [on Dec. 6], even as the results came in, there was still kind of a grayness to where the selection committee would go. And of course, there were a lot of surprises.