Las Vegas as host of College Football Playoff title game considered 'premature'

Lindsay Schnell | USA TODAY

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When the Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) was unconstitutional, and that each state should be able to decide if its residents are allowed to bet on sports, everyone in college sports had the same question.

How soon can a national football championship and/or Final Four get to Las Vegas?

According to College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock, it’ll be awhile.

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The CFP announced in November title game sites for 2021-24. Hancock told USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday that it will likely be “at least two years, maybe more, before we start thinking about the next round” of site selection.

“It’s premature for me to even comment on it because we haven’t talked about it at all,” Hancock said, adding that as of now, Las Vegas does not have a facility that could accommodate a national championship football game.

But it won't be long before there will be. Construction a new stadium to accomodate the NFL's Raiders move from Oakland is scheduled to be completed by fall 2019.

“I suspect we’re going to want to know that the building is in place, or will be in place, at least a couple years before we go there,” Hancock said. “I don’t think we’ll be awarding any cities where theres’s a stadium under construction — what if you have delays?”

Even if it’s a few years away, Hancock understands the buzz around the Supreme Court’s decision, and the anticipation about how the ruling could, and likely will, dramatically alter the college sports championship landscape.

“We’re always gonna be excited about a new world class stadium,” he said. “That’s the bottom line for us: Let’s give our athletes the chance to compete in a really cool place … a lot of things will happen before our term comes up, in particular what does the NCAA do (about its bylaws). We’ll be watching.”

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