College football games played at neutral sites

This may just be the beginning. Stokan envisions a future with many bowl cities staging a kickoff game and teams wanting to participate due to the strength of schedule factor for reaching the College Football Playoff. Schools will say I recruit in both and I can make money in both, whereas if I schedule a home-and-home, I make money in one game. The future of neutral-site games is not entirely that simple. Going to Death Valley would be a great experience.

In addition to Atlanta, Houston and Arlington, Texas, numerous bowl cities are exploring more neutral-site opportunities, including Jacksonville, Orlando, Nashville and Charlotte. But other regular-season games are a totally different story. We had to work very hard for that Alabama-Florida State game in Jacksonville in to get one of the conferences to give up television rights.

The media rights of neutral-site games belong to the conferences. They have their challenges. They have to raise the dollars to make it worthwhile for the institutions to give up a home game for the neutral site team. Neutral-site games allow a team to annually play seven home games, plus get a sizable neutral-site payout without losing that money another year as part of a home-and-home series.

Some schools can make as much, if not more, off a neutral-site game as they can off one home game. At the right price, two neutral-site games can be far more valuable than a home-and-home series with one big gate at home and a small appearance fee on the road. Alabama is the poster child of this approach. Notre Dame vs. Syracuse Oct. Texas Oct. New Mexico Oct. Georgia Oct. Navy vs. Notre Dame Nov. Army vs. Navy Dec.

College football rankings: Preseason Top 25 for the season It's time for a very early look at the college football season. Here are our way-too-early top 25 preseason rankings.

Georgia pulls away from Alabama to win first national title since A fourth quarter push from Georgia was enough to push the Bulldogs over the edge to win their first national title since The prize at stake in this rivalry is the Black Diamond Trophy. Oklahoma's 33 year-old Lincoln Riley, the youngest head coach in the nation, will try to best Texas' new golden boy, Tom Herman, Florida-Georgia: October 28, p.

Georgia will look to win its first game since in this series -- still known to most as the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party despite official efforts to rebrand. Boston College-UConn: November 18, 7 p. Army-Navy: December 9, 3 p.

The next non-Philly game in this series is scheduled for the Meadowlands in New Jersey in Last year Army beat Navy, , for the first time since Both teams are coming off bowl appearances, so expect another close game this year. By: Marty Johnson -.