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ESPN’s Heather Dinich Reports the CFP Won’t Flip Semifinal Dates to Help Notre Dame

Notre Dame has a big rest disadvantage after the Sugar Bowl was postponed.

Stephen Douglas

The CFP will not flip semifinal dates according to Heather Dinich.
The CFP will not flip semifinal dates according to Heather Dinich. / @AwfulAnnouncin
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Penn State and Notre Dame will face off in the Capital One Orange Bowl next Thursday with a spot in the CFP National Championship Presented by AT&T on the line. The next night Ohio State and Texas will play in the Cotton Bowl to see who the other team will be.

Because of the tragic events in New Orleans this week, Notre Dame will be playing on less rest than the other teams that made the semifinals. The Sugar Bowl was postponed from Wednesday night to Thursday afternoon, leaving Notre Dame with just a week to prepare for Penn State, which has two extra days off after beating Boise State on New Year's Eve.

With Notre Dame at a rest disadvantage, some have wondered whether the CFP could flip the dates of the semifinal games out of fairness to Notre Dame. This morning on Get Up, ESPN's Heather Dinich completely shut that down.

"CFP executive director Rich Clark told me this morning that those games will not be flipped," said Dinich. "He told me that logistics are very complicated. Disruptive to the other teams involved that have schedules in place. Fans have already made their arrangements. And he said there's a lot of more issues. Those are some of the big ones. He also said that they already made a concession to play the game 18 or hours so different in terms of moving that schedule. He said, 'We wanted to ensure we could provide safety and security for teams, coaching staffs, fans, and others involved in New Orleans and Sugar Bowl officials were amazing in that regard.' But they did make concessions. It's not going to change anymore."

Clearly there are more factors for the CFP to consider than how many days off Notre Dame has.

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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.

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