The Home of the ACC Champion, the Orange Bowl, will host one of the two semifinals in the second year of the coming soon college football playoff. The game will be played on either December 31, 2015 or January 1, 2016.
The first college football playoff semifinals will be held at the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl, with the winners playing in the first Plus One National Championship Game on January 12, 2015. Dallas is considered the prohibitive favorite to host the first playoff National Championship, with the event played in a different city each year.
The second 2015-16 semifinal location is still to be determined but Dallas (Cotton), Atlanta (Peach) and Phoenix (Fiesta) are considered to be the front-runners.
Having the Rose and Sugar Bowls host the semifinals in the same year helps increase the chances that each bowls' traditional conference pairings -- Big Ten and PAC-12 for the Rose, SEC and Big 12 for the Sugar -- will hold for the first college football playoff. The following year, when the Orange Bowl hosts, if the ACC champion is not in the playoff, they'll be placed in one of the access bowls.
When not hosting one of the two semifinals, the Orange Bowl will feature the ACC champion vs. the highest available ranked team from the SEC, Big Ten or Notre Dame. Notre Dame can only play in the Orange Bowl twice in a 12 year period, while the SEC and Big Ten must appear at least three times in the years when the Orange Bowl is not one of the national semifinals.
ESPN will pay out roughly $55 million annually for the Orange Bowl. If the ACC plays either an SEC or Big Ten opponent, each conference would receive $27.5 million. If the ACC faces Notre Dame, the conference will receive $41.25 million while the Irish will receive $13.75 million.