The 2024 College Football Playoff continues this week with a pair of semifinal games slated for Thursday and Friday.
No. 7 Notre Dame will play No. 6 Penn State on Thursday, Jan. 9 in the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami while No. 8 Ohio State will play No. 5 Texas on Friday, Jan. 10 in the Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Along with the bowl organizers, College Football Playoff announcers and referees are expected to play a big part in helping to put forth two exciting semifinal games for college football fans before the championship.
There’s already been some simmering controversy over officiating in recent games, as in the case of the targeting no-call in Texas’ 39-31 win over ASU in the Peach Bowl.
For a useful gameday reference, here are the announcers and referees for the CFP semifinal games.
The Orange Bowl announcers are Sean McDonough (play-by-play) and Greg McElroy (analyst). The game will be broadcast on ESPN, and kickoff is set for Thursday at 7:30 p.m. ET.
The Orange Bowl will feature a Big 12 officiating crew led by referee Michael Vandervelde.
Big 12 Officials
Previous Assignments
Michael Vandervelde
Conference Championship, Sugar Bowl
Sheldon Davis
Conference Championship, Sugar Bowl
John Braun
Conference Championship, Sugar Bowl
Keith Garmond
Conference Championship, Sugar Bowl
Joseph Martinez
Conference Championship, Sugar Bowl
JB Garza
Conference Championship, Sugar Bowl
Daniel Young
Conference Championship
Marvel July
Conference Championship, Sugar Bowl
Tutu Salaam (Alternate)
ReliaQuest Bowl
Brad Van Vark (Replay)
Conference Championship, Sugar Bowl
Jeff Yock (Communicator)
Conference Championship, Sugar Bowl
The Cotton Bowl announcers are Chris Fowler (play-by-play) and Kirk Herbstreit (analyst). The game will be broadcast on ESPN, and kickoff is set for Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET.
The Cotton Bowl will feature an ACC officiating crew led by referee Jerry Magallanes.
ACC Officials
Previous Assignments
Jerry Magallanes
CFP First Round
Johnnie Forte
Conference Championship, Rose Bowl
Darryl Johnson
Conference Championship, CFP First Round
Alex Amaya
CFP First Round
Hugh Brown
Conference Championship, Rose Bowl
Brian McGready
CFP First Round
Frederick Dimpfel
Conference Championship, Rose Bowl
Anthony Calabrese
CFP First Round
Marcus Woods (Alternate)
CFP First Round
Bill Scott (Replay)
Rose Bowl
Frank Overcash (Communicator)
Rose Bowl
The expanded playoff format this year brought a new system of assigning officiating crews. The one requirement across all College Football Playoff matchups is that the officiating crew for any given game cannot be from the same conference as the participating schools.
Rather like the teams themselves, College Football Playoff officiating crews can advance to later rounds based on performance.
The officiating crew for the College Football Playoff championship has yet to be assigned.
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Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL Network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. Outside of work, she has dreams of running her own sporty dive bar.
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