Plot Synopsis

The Cotton Bowl is an annual college football post-season bowl game, typically held on New Year's Day. In anticipation of hosting a bowl game to compete with the Rose (CA), Orange (FL), and Sugar (LA) Bowls, in January 1936 the Dallas City Council and the Texas Centennial Central Exposition authorities renamed Dallas' Fair Park Stadium as the Cotton Bowl, which had seating for 46,000 people with the ability to expand to 70,000 for a national championship game. The inaugural game was played less than a year later on New Year's Day 1937. J. Curtis Sanford, an oil tycoon and real estate developer, financed the game, featuring TCU defeating Marquette 16-6 in front of 17,000 fans. The game featured the Southwest Conference winner until the conference's disbandment in 1996. The Cotton Bowl then featured a Southeastern Conference team against a Big 12 team through the 2012 matchup of Arkansas vs. Kansas State. Then, on April 24, 2012, the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic was selected as one of six bowl games to comprise the College Football Playoff. During this 12-year agreement, the Classic is part of a rotation for the national semifinals once every three years (following the 2015, 2018 and 2021 seasons). In years the Cotton Bowl Classic does not host a national semifinal game, the Playoff selection committee assigns a displaced conference champion, a top-ranked champion from a non-contract conference, or another highly-ranked team as the game's participants.