College Football Playoff

WALKER HAYES

Monument Records recording artist Walker Hayes is a singer/songwriter originally from Mobile, Alabama. His smash hit “Fancy Like” spent more than six months at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs Chart, hit the top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 1 at country radio, and earned Hayes a GRAMMY nomination for Best Country Song. Follow up singles “AA,” “Y’all Life” and “Good With Me” have made Hayes one of the top selling and streamed artists in country music. His current single “Good With Me” is part of his most recent project, New Money, a collection that proves that Hayes’ world gives an awful lot of people a strong sense of their own. Just off the road from his headlining The Duck Buck Tour, Hayes surprised fans with his first Christmas song, “Fancy Like Christmas.” The re-imagined version of his worldwide hit is bringing joy to households everywhere this season.

ALLI WALKER

Alli Walker is a country singer/songwriter celebrated for her unyielding work ethic. Balancing her music career with a successful stint as a commercial and print model, she has collaborated with renowned brands such as Nike and Google. The pandemic thrust her into TikTok stardom, influencing her second album, Growing Up, debuting at No. 6 on iTunes Country charts. Her fusion of her own bagpipes in the viral Country sea shanty "The Whiskey's Gone" garnered widespread attention with major playlist covers and features in acclaimed media such as CMT, Spotify and BBC Radio 2. The song has accumulated over 10 million views and 1.3 million streams since its release earlier this year. Walker’s latest single “Hung Up” has been featured on Spotify, Amazon, Tidal, SiriusXM and CMT. Currently immersed in Nashville, Walker is gearing up for her next album produced by David Fanning and set to embark on global tour dates from Berlin to Vancouver.

Prior to kickoff, GRAMMY award-winning superstar and Golden Globe nominee for Best Actress in the film The Color Purple, Fantasia will perform “The Star-Spangled Banner”. The National Anthem Ceremony will begin with the presentation of the Nation’s Colors by a Joint Armed Forces Color Guard from the Military District of Washington, including members of the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Space Force and Coast Guard, followed by the unfurling of a giant American flag. As part of the CFP’s salute to the armed forces, the anthem ceremony will include a video feed from U.S. troops deployed at Camp Adazi, Latvia with the 3rd Infantry Division Artillery, U.S. Army, who will watching the national championship game. Continuing a CFP tradition, drummers from the participating team bands will be included in the National Anthem presentation.

Prior to the National Anthem, “America the Beautiful” will be performed by members of the Theatre Under The Stars (TUTS) Musical Theatre Academy Ensemble. For 50 years, Theatre Under The Stars has enriched the lives of Houstonians through Broadway caliber, nationally-recognized main stage productions, new work development, inclusive and accessible world-class training, and robust community engagement programming.

William Stokes, a 12th-grade student from Deer Park, Texas, will perform both the "Star-Spangled Banner" and "America the Beautiful" in American Sign Language (ASL). Stokes attends Deer Park High School - South in the Deer Park Independent School District and participates in the Region 4 Regional Day School Program for the Deaf (RDSPD) managed by Region 4 Education Service Center. The Region 4 RDSPD provides services and supports for over 600 students who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deafblind, ages birth to 21 years of age, across seven member districts and charter schools in the greater Houston area.

As part of the CFP Foundation’s Extra Yard for Teachers (EYFT) initiative, the 2023 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.

Celebrating a college football tradition, the marching bands of each participating team will be featured performers on the field during pregame and at halftime.

During the national championship game, the College Football Playoff will recognize U.S. Army Captain Florent Groberg, who received the Medal of Honor for his service as a personal security detachment commander for 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division during combat operations against an armed enemy in Asadabad, Afghanistan. On August 8, 2012, while conducting a patrol escort mission, Capt. Groberg tackled a suicide bomber from his formation, who detonated his device. Groberg was severely wounded by the blast but saved the majority of the lives he was charged with protecting. He distinguished himself by acts of gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty, and his extraordinary heroism and selflessness at the risk of life are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect credit upon himself and the U.S. Army.

The College Football Playoff will also recognize NASA’s Artemis II Crew during the national championship game, including former football student-athlete from Cal Poly, NASA astronaut Victor Glover. Glover, who has been named the pilot of the crew that will travel around the moon, will be joined in the recognition by fellow NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman and Christina Koch and CSA astronaut, Jeremy Hansen, as well as NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Vanessa Wyche. The astronauts will serve on the first crewed flight aboard NASA’s human deep space exploration capabilities, paving the way for future lunar surface missions. Artemis II builds on the successful Artemis I flight test, which launched an uncrewed Orion, atop the SLS rocket, on a 1.4 million-mile journey beyond the Moon to test systems before astronauts fly aboard the systems on a mission to the Moon.

PREGAME FESTIVITIES INSIDE NRG STADIUM WILL BEGIN AT 6:30 P.M. CT.