Sources: 2016, 2017 title games set

ByBRETT MCMURPHY
December 16, 2013, 2:47 PM

— -- Glendale, Ariz., and Tampa, Fla., will host college football's 2016 and 2017 national championship games, sources said.

Glendale's University of Phoenix Stadium, the site of the Fiesta Bowl and home of the Arizona Cardinals, was chosen over three other venues for the Jan. 11, 2016, game.

Tampa's Raymond James Stadium was selected over five other venues for the Jan. 9, 2017, game. Raymond James hosts the Outback Bowl each year and is home to South Florida and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, was announced in October as the site of the title game in 2015, the first year the NCAA moves to the four-team College Football Playoff.

Since 1999, the Glendale/Phoenix area has hosted four BCS National Championship games. This will be the first college football title game ever held in Tampa, which has hosted four Super Bowls -- two at Raymond James Stadium.

Tampa also will become the first city that does not hold one of the College Football Playoff's six major bowl games to host a college football national title game. Tampa finished as the runner-up to Arlington to host the first title game in the post-BCS era.

The three cities Glendale beat out for the 2016 national title game were Jacksonville, Fla., (EverBank Field), New Orleans (Mercedes-Benz Superdome) and Tampa (Raymond James Stadium).

The five cities Tampa beat out for the 2017 national title game were San Francisco/Santa Clara (Levi's Stadium), Jacksonville (EverBank Field), Minneapolis (Vikings Stadium), San Antonio (Alamodome) and Miami (Sun Life Stadium).

The BCS ends this season with No. 1 Florida State and No. 2 Auburn playing Jan. 6, 2014 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.