Following the first College Football Playoff on Twitter

By
Monday, 29 December 2014

After years of anticipation, the inaugural College Football Playoff (@CFBPlayoff) is finally here, and all of the action on and off the gridiron will play out on Twitter.

On Jan. 1, two semifinal games will usher in a new era of college football: No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide (@AlabamaFTBL) will take on the No. 4 Ohio State Buckeyes (@OhioStAthletics) in the @Allstate#SugarBowl (@SugarBowlNola), while No. 2 Oregon Ducks (@WinTheDay) will play the undefeated No. 3 Florida State Seminoles (@FSU_Football) in the #RoseBowl (@RoseBowlGame) presented by Northwestern Mutual (@NM_News).

The road to the playoff

As the four playoff teams were announced on Dec. 7, each school took to Twitter when the news broke. Some used Vines and custom artwork to reach fans, while others revealed their new @Nike uniforms for the big game.

@ESPN supplemented its exclusive coverage of the announcement, using several accounts to support the featured teams – even via a few classic characters in the @Disney family. Check out a snapshot of the Tweets in this collection:

How to follow the action on New Year’s Day

On Thursday, Oregon and Florida State will face off in the Rose Bowl at 5 p.m. ET on @ESPN and Alabama and Ohio State will go to battle at the Sugar Bowl immediately following at 8:30 p.m. ET on @ESPN.

To stay connected throughout the #CFBPlayoff, look no further than @ESPNCFB for score updates, highlights and analysis throughout the day and evening. With help from @Ford, passionate college football fans won’t miss a top replay throughout the postseason. @ESPNCFB will be tweeting the best highlights immediately following the plays, so stay close to the feed for live video updates. And for both games, you can dive into the conversation by Tweeting using one of the official hashtags:

ESPN will complement its game telecasts and official @CFBPLayoff coverage with additional college football content on Twitter provided by @ESPN, @SportsCenter and @CollegeGameDay. You can also follow the on-air talent as they call the semifinal games:

Follow @CFBPlayoff for official news and updates from the CFB Organization and Selection Committee:


College football fans can also follow all four College Football Playoff teams’ official accounts, athletic departments and team-specific hashtags:

#1 Alabama
Team: @AlabamaFTBL
Athletic Department: @UA_Athletics
Hashtag: #RollTide

#2 Oregon
Team: @WinTheDay
Athletic Department: @GoDucks
Hashtag: #GoDucks
Head coach: @CoachHelfrich

#3 Florida State
Team: @FSU_Football
Athletic Department: @Seminoles_Com
Hashtag: #Noles

#4 Ohio State
Athletic Department: @OhioStAthletics
Hashtag: #GoBucks
Head coach: @OSUCoachMeyer

Interactive fan map

If you’re wondering who else might be rallying around your team during the @CFBPlayoff, we’ve created this interactive map that shows the most-followed college football playoff teams among users by U.S. county.

For more about how we build these maps, check out this NFL map post.

Enjoy the inaugural College Football Playoff, and check back on Friday when we recap how the games played out on the field and on Twitter.