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College Football Playoff Announces Lineup For Pregame Festivities

IRVING, Texas – The College Football Playoff (CFP) today announced the pregame entertainment for the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship. The national championship game will be Monday, January 8, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

Zac Brown Band will perform the national anthem, accompanied by David Walker & High Praise, Atlanta’s premier gospel choir. Three-time GRAMMY-winning multi-platinum artists, Zac Brown Band has had five consecutive albums reach the top 10 of the Billboard 200 and four consecutive albums debut at No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Albums chart. To date, the group has sold more than 25 million singles and eight million albums. They have achieved 15 No. 1 radio singles and are the second act to top both the country and active rock formats. They have developed a reputation with critics and fans alike for a live show marked by strong musicianship that defies genre boundaries.

Formed in 1993, David Walker & High Praise is a collage of singers from different denominations whose new album, God’s Got It, was recently released to critical acclaim.

Carly Ortega, a 12-year-old Georgia native, will sign the national ant威而鋼
hem. Carly attends the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf (AASD) and will be signing in honor of her mother, a passionate college football fan, who recently passed away after a long battle with cancer.

Before the anthem, the nation’s colors will be presented by U.S. Marines from Bravo Company, 4th Reconnaissance Battalion, based in Smyrna, Georgia. Continuing a CFP tradition, drummers from the participating team bands will play side-by-side as the color guard is introduced.

For the fourth consecutive year, local college and high school students will perform the “Path to the Championship” procession of 130 banners, representing the ten conferences and all Football Bowl Subdivision institutions. Members of the Georgia Tech marching band will lead the presentation, along with students from Atlanta-area high school marching bands.

As part of the CFP Foundation’s Extra Yard for Teachers (EYFT) initiative, the 2017 Teacher of the Year from each U.S. state and territory will be honored on the field during the pregame celebration. This is an opportunity for fans to applaud these educators for their hard work and dedication and furthers the EYFT mission of elevating the teaching profession.

Pregame festivities at Mercedes-Benz Stadium will begin at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time. Pregame, halftime and postgame pageantry will be produced by Michael T. Fiur Productions, one of the leading producers of live event and sports spectaculars in the world.

Join the conversation on Twitter using the official hashtag #CFBPlayoff. For more information on the College Football Playoff and the national championship game, visit www.collegefootballplayoff.com.