Bigger CFP begins on December sports calendar
The College Football Playoff begins its expanded 12-team tournament format this month. Here’s a look at 10 highlights on the December sports calendar, including the conclusion of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
NFL Regular Season (December 1-30)
The NFL concludes Week 13 of its schedule on December 1-2, with the marquee Niners at Bills game in Buffalo the Sunday Night Football matchup. Teams will then jockey for playoff positioning over Week 14, Week 15, Week 16, and Week 17 the rest of the month, with a pair of games set for Christmas Day as the Steelers play host to the Chiefs and the Texans get a visit from the Ravens with a special halftime show. The NFL regular season will come to an end during the first week of January with its Week 18 schedule.
NBA Regular Season (December 1-31)
The NBA will also be in action on Christmas Day with its usual slate of five games, starting with a Noon ET tipoff between the Spurs and the Knicks in New York. That’ll be followed by the Timberwolves at the Mavericks at 2:30pm ET, the Sixers at the Celtics at 5:00pm ET, the Lakers at the Warriors at 8:00pm ET, and the Nuggets at the Suns at 10:30pm ET. The NBA also has six games on its New Year’s Eve schedule.
NHL Regular Season (December 1-31)
Unlike the NFL and NBA, the NHL doesn’t play games on Christmas Day – the league actually shuts down from December 24-26. The NHL’s December slate gets underway with a marquee clash between the Jets and the Stars in Dallas on December 1, while its first Saturday night of the month includes Colorado at Detroit and Toronto at Pittsburgh. The NHL does have a full schedule of 13 games on New Year’s Eve.
College Basketball Regular Season (December 1-31)
College basketball fans will find big matchups for the month starting on December 4, with Baylor vs. UConn, Alabama vs. North Carolina, Marquette vs. Iowa State, Kansas vs. Creighton, and Auburn vs. Duke all on the schedule for that day. The first Saturday of the month also offers up Kentucky vs. Gonzaga, with Gonzaga then facing UConn on December 14. Purdue will take on Auburn in a December 21 contest.
Qatar Grand Prix (December 1)
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has already clinched the 2024 Formula 1 drivers championship heading into the second-last race of the season in Qatar on December 1. Verstappen holds a 404-347 lead on McLaren’s Lando Norris in the driver standings, with McLaren up 623-593 on Ferrari in the constructor standings. Verstappen won the Qatar Grand Prix last season, finishing ahead of Oscar Piastri and Norris.
College Football Conference Championships (December 6-7)
College football’s conferences will crown their champions on the first weekend of December, with the American, Conference USA, and Mountain West conferences all holding their title games on December 6, and the Big 12, MAC, SWAC, SEC, Sun Belt, ACC, and Big Ten conferences all holding their title games on December 7. The Navy vs. Army game will take place on December 14 at Landover’s Northwest Stadium.
UFC 310: Pantoja vs. Asakura (December 7)
T-Mobile Arena will play host to UFC 310 on December 7, with the headliner featuring Alexandre Pantoja taking on Kai Asakura for the UFC Flyweight Championship. Also on the card is Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Ian Machado Garry in a welterweight matchup, Ciryl Gane vs. Alexander Volkov in a heavyweight matchup, and Bryce Mitchell vs. Kron Gracie and Nate Landwehr vs. Choi Doo-ho in featherweight bouts.
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (December 8)
The 2024 Formula 1 season comes to a close on December 8 in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with Verstappen having won this event in each of the last four seasons. Last year Verstappen was joined on the podium in Abu Dhabi by Charles Leclerc and George Russell, with Sergio Perez, Norris, Piastri, Fernando Alonso, Yuki Tsunoda, Lewis Hamilton, and Lance Stroll rounding out the Top 10 on the day.
College Football Bowl Games (December 14-31)
The college football teams that don’t make it into the College Football Playoff will get to play in old-fashioned bowl games this month, starting on December 14 with the Cricket Celebration Bowl and the IS4S Salute to Veterans Bowl. Other notable bowl games on the schedule including the Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Eve and the ReliaQuest Bowl, Sun Bowl, Citrus Bowl, and Texas Bowl on New Year’s Eve.
College Football Playoff First-Round Games (December 20-21)
A dozen teams will make the field for the expanded CFP, and four will get byes into the quarterfinals. That leaves eight teams to play in the four first-round CFP games, with one taking place on December 20 and the other three held on December 21. The winners of those four games will then move on to the quarterfinals, which will be played as the Fiesta Bowl, Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl, and Sugar Bowl on December 31 and January 1. The semifinals will be held January 9-10, and the championship game is on January 20.
With zero championships between his MLB, NHL, and NFL teams over the last 30 years, Dave keeps one foot in the past while shaking his fist at the present. Having provided content to all manner of sports websites over a 20-year career in the industry, Dave brings to Attiq an eye for all things editorial and a disdain for all things New York Yankees. Click here for Dave's posts.
