ESPN’s broadcast of the College Football Playoff quarterfinals was secondary to a terrorist attack in New Orleans’ French Quarter this week, but the attack threw the scheduled Sugar Bowl into question early Wednesday morning.

As ESPN, the CFP, the Sugar Bowl and local officials worked to postpone the Georgia-Notre Dame game, everything was on the table. A new report from Puck’s John Ourand suggests that while ESPN pushed to take advantage of the delay and air the game in prime time on Jan. 2, the CFP overruled the network.

ESPN was even cleared to advance to the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville between Duke and Ole Miss, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET. However, participating programs and the CFP itself wanted an earlier start time to ensure a more even competitive balance. The Sugar Bowl winner was scheduled to face Penn State, which had played in the Fiesta Bowl on Tuesday night, and time was running out.

“The schools, for their part, preferred an earlier kick-off time for competitive reasons, as it would give the winner more time to get home and begin preparations for next week’s semifinals,” Ourand wrote.

In the end, the CFP and the two participating programs prevailed.

“Ultimately, CFP decided on a 4:00 p.m. ET kickoff based on feedback from teams, security and law enforcement,” Ourand added.

The Gator Bowl was delayed by 35 minutes, but ESPN still had two strong college football offerings throughout the weekday.

For security reasons, ESPN was far from the main player in this situation. However, It is useful to know how everyone responded to the serious situation in New Orleans.

(Puck)