The Georgia Bulldogs landed at LAX on Tuesday night, their journey from Atlanta having taken five hours, as opposed to the four days via train when first they graced the Rose Bowl in 1942/1943. Their first brief media session is scheduled for this afternoon at Disneyland. Many, many more media sessions will follow.
When the College Football Playoff came into existence, its elders chose to make the first round of tournament games in the image of a regular bowl week, meaning that the on-site run-up to the semifinals would last the better part of a week. The teams would arrive early, do the tourist and fun bowl stuff and then (finally) get around to playing. The media obligations for Georgia and Oklahoma are as follows:
Welcome session (even though the teams landed yesterday) at Disneyland today; morning sessions with offensive/defensive coordinators and selected offensive/defensive players on Thursday and Friday; Media Day with full squads on Saturday; head coaches’ joint presser on Sunday.
> Also: Trippi and Dooley on UGA, Rose Bowl
Note that the Media Day festivities will not be held at the Rose Bowl itself but at the media hotel downtown L.A. This differs by semifinal site. The Rose Bowl prefers not to cart teams and the assembled media to Pasadena just for press stuff. When Florida State played Auburn in the final BCS title game in January 2014, Media Day wasn’t even staged in Los Angeles County; it was held in ballrooms at the Newport Beach Marriott in Orange County.
If you win your semifinal, your media load lightens. The CFP also made the decision to treat its championship game more as a normal game. Teams generally arrive on Friday before the Monday night game. Media Day is Saturday, the coaches’ joint presser on Sunday – and that’s it.
The CFP doesn’t treat its title tilt like the dragged-out Super Bowl. On the contrary, it gives its participants its bowl-type week first and something more streamlined second. If you make the final, you’re on a business trip.
Both Georgia and Oklahoma are practicing at the StubHub Center in Carson, which is south of L.A. but not so far south as Anaheim and Disneyland. The Bulldogs are staying downtown, as opposed to being, say, in Hollywood. The team hotel isn’t far from Staples Center, where the Lakers and Clippers play. Hollywood and Beverly Hills and Santa Monica are a bit west – not far west, but with L.A. traffic, nothing is a quick ride.
But enough tour guide stuff. We’ll get around to talking football soon. And I should report that I saw no one wearing Georgia regalia on my flight yesterday, though the day after Christmas was a bit early for even the most ardent fans to be traveling to a New Year’s Day bowl. I expect the Bulldog Nation invasion to begin in earnest on Thursday and Friday. I expect to see much Red & Black then.
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