MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — A potential stadium conflict could exist if the Miami Hurricanes host a first-round game in this year’s College Football Playoff, with a Spanish league soccer game set to be played at Hard Rock Stadium in that same window.
La Liga is sending Barcelona and Villarreal to play in Miami Gardens on Dec. 20, on the same field the Hurricanes call home. The CFP schedule calls for one first-round game to be played on Dec. 19 and three on Dec. 20.
If Miami is somewhere between No. 5 and No. 8 in the final CFP rankings — and at this point, that would seem to be a very real possibility — the Hurricanes would be in line to host a game on one of those two December dates.
Miami athletic director Dan Radakovich said Friday that talks are ongoing to find a solution. ESPN reported Sunday that College Football Playoff officials also are involved in trying to figure out what may have to happen.
ESPN would be involved in any scheduling changes because it holds the CFP broadcast rights.
The contingency options would figure to include simply adjusting the CFP schedule — moving games by a day — or finding an alternate site if the Hurricanes need one. If games are moved on the calendar, it wouldn’t be much of a competitive advantage or disadvantage in terms of preparation time; winners of first-round games would not play again until Dec. 31 or Jan. 1.
It’s also possible that the soccer game, if it was to start in the morning on Dec. 20, could be played in advance of a football game on the same field that night, though such a plan would require countless logistical issues to be addressed.
No matter what happens, the situation is creating headaches on two continents.
Spanish players are clearly unhappy about the idea of sending league matches overseas and protested the move this weekend by standing still for the first 15 seconds of matches. Many of those protests were not shown on television broadcasts.
The union that represents La Liga players organized the protests, which it said were in response to a “lack of transparency, dialogue and coherence of La Liga regarding the possibility of playing a game in the United States.”
La Liga’s stance is that playing the game in Miami Gardens — which has a large Spanish-speaking population and will play host to some World Cup matches when soccer’s biggest event comes to the U.S., Mexico and Canada next year — is simply good for business. Soccer has a huge following in South Florida, one that has only grown since Lionel Messi joined Inter Miami and entered Major League Soccer in 2023.
Using Inter Miami’s stadium as a fallback wouldn’t figure to appeal to La Liga. Hard Rock Stadium can hold about 65,000 for soccer matches, while Inter Miami’s stadium in Fort Lauderdale can hold about one-third that many people.
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