To expedite the process in choosing the site of the national title game on Jan. 12, 2015 that will crown the champion of the Football Bowl Subdivision's first playoff, only six cities will be considered, sources told ESPN on Monday.
The four current BCS bowls -- the Fiesta in Glendale, Ariz., Orange in Miami, Sugar in New Orleans and Rose in Pasadena, Calif. -- along with the Cotton (Arlington, Texas) and Chick-fil-A (Atlanta) bowls will be the only sites that will have the opportunity to host the 2015 title game.
The BCS commissioners originally planned to open the bidding to any city interested in submitting a request for proposal for the title game.
But considering the challenges involved with hosting the game, and because it is only 28 months away, the commissioners felt the need to move quickly on naming the site.
A decision is expected to be announced early next year.
For all other future national championship games, requests will be submitted allowing any city to bid for the contest -- the same way that cities bid for the NFL's Super Bowl.
The Rose Bowl and the Orange Bowl will be among the sites that host the national semifinals on a rotating basis for 12 years, starting with the 2014 season.
Five more sites will be picked, and the Fiesta Bowl and the Sugar Bowl are expected to be among them. In years in which those sites do not host a semifinal, they will host a high-payout bowl game.
Atlanta and Arlington, along with Houston and San Antonio, are in the running to host the new bowl created by the Big 12 and the Southeastern Conference. New Orleans is also in the running for that game, and is considered one of the favorites to land it, along with Arlington.
The site of the so-called Champions Bowl is expected to be announced next month.
Besides the six cities already named, other cities expected to be interested include Indianapolis, Detroit, St. Louis, Orlando, Fla., Houston, San Diego, Jacksonville, Fla., and Tampa, Fla.
Brett McMurphy covers college football for ESPN. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.