This story appeared in the 2018 College Football Playoff Semifinal at the 83rd Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic Official Game Program

Fifty years after Jerry Jones was an Arkansas starting offensive lineman who helped the Razorbacks win a share of the 1964 national championship by beating Nebraska 10-7 in the 1965 Cotton Bowl Classic, the stadium he built as owner of the Dallas Cowboys restored the game to its illustrious roots.
 
Ohio State beat Oregon 42-20 on January 15, 2015 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, to win the first College Football Playoff national championship for the 2014 season.
 
It was the first postseason game played in the home of the Classic involving two top10-ranked teams since January 1, 1994 when No. 4 Notre Dame beat No. 7 Texas A&M 24-17.
 
The Goodyear Cotton Bowl will host its third playoff game — and second semifinal — in the last five years with today's matchup in AT&T Stadium.
 
"The memories of getting to play in the Cotton Bowl and win the '64 national championship and the significance of what that's meant in my life can't be measured," Jones said. "From that experience in the Cotton Bowl, I never again had to ask in my life if I could do something.
 
"The Cotton Bowl gave me the confidence that I could do anything I set my mind to do."
 
That's why helping the Goodyear Cotton Bowl again host top-10 matchups and impact the national championship means so much to Jones.
 
"If I could in any way contribute to the Cotton Bowl being more substantive, that's something I wanted to do," Jones said. "Because the Cotton Bowl has great meaning to me.
 
"To have a venue that could seat over 100,000 people and do it in the most perfect climate that you could ever play a game in, was a dream for me. The fact that the Cotton Bowl got to take advantage of it is a dream come true, too."
 
WEATHER CONCERNS
For nearly 20 years, from 1994 through 2013, the Cotton Bowl Classic wasn't involved in what became the Bowl Championship Series games matching up the top teams in the country because of weather concerns for Dallas in late December and early January.
 
 "We had good games, we had good matchups, but in terms of really impacting the national championship, we were out of the mix," said Rick Baker, who has been the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association's President since 1993.
 
The move to AT&T Stadium in the summer of 2009 when it opened removed any weather issues because of its retractable roof and made it an easy call for conference and college administrators to include the Classic in the new playoff format.
 
"Without a doubt it's been a game-changer for us to play in AT&T Stadium," Baker said. "It put us back on the national map and was the missing piece we needed to get back to hosting the most important college football games in the postseason again.
 
Fin Ewing, a longtime member of the Cotton Bowl Athletic Association and now its Playoff Chairman, recalled the emotions of being left out of the BCS.
 
"It was like getting kicked in the teeth," Ewing said. "The only thing we lacked was a dome, and we got left behind. It was a tough time to be involved with the Cotton Bowl, but we all believed that eventually things would work out, and they did. And they worked out with Jerry and Stephen Jones. Playing in AT&T Stadium has brought us back to where we were for so long."
 
PUTTING THE WHEELS IN MOTION
Ewing recalled a meeting he and Baker had with the Joneses — Stephen Jones is Jerry's son and the Cowboys' executive vice president who also is on the CBAA's board — at Valley Ranch in 2003 to discuss a new stadium being built. That was the first step in signing a 35-year agreement in 2007 to play in AT&T Stadium.
 
"It's amazing for our family to be involved with the Cotton Bowl, to have that as part of our legacy," said Stephen Jones, who also played football at Arkansas. "I know Jerry gets emotional about it, and I get emotional, too. The Cotton Bowl means a lot to our family."
 
No NFL owner supports college football more than Jerry Jones. The college games played at AT&T Stadium include his Razorbacks taking on Texas A&M on an annual basis.
 
"Of course, I love football at all levels," Jones said. "I'm an example of how football can educate and inspire a person. Football did that for me, and I saw it do it for my teammates and their families.
 
"So to be able to have a stadium that can have these meaningful games, that's a way of contributing to the game and the overall education that I think this game brings." 
 
POSITIVE REVIEWS
College coaches whose teams have played in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl or playoff games in AT&T Stadium rave about the experience.
 
"I think the facility they have now is one of the best in the country," Alabama Coach Nick Saban said. "It's as first-class as it gets. The people are great, the hospitality is great and I think they have every right to be one of those bowl games that have this opportunity to be in the [national title] mix. I was very impressed with our experience."
 
Michigan State Coach Mark Dantonio has been involved in a playoff game and the Goodyear Cotton Bowl at AT&T Stadium.
 
"The people and the hospitality there and the scope of what they do for the players in terms of entertainment is at the height of the college bowl experience," Dantonio said. "You're not going to find another stadium that we've played in that has that type of persona. It's a whole different level. I think there are certain bowl games that have stood the test of time, and the Cotton Bowl is one of those."
 
Minnesota Coach P.J. Fleck brought his Western Michigan team to play Wisconsin in the 2017 Goodyear Cotton Bowl.
 
"You walk into Jerry World — that's what we called it — and there's a breathtaking moment," Fleck said. "You lose your breath for a minute because it's so big, it's so inspiring. Even pulling up to it takes your breath away. I mean, you think you're going to play in the Super Bowl."
 
AT&T Stadium has hosted a Super Bowl as well as an NCAA Basketball Final Four and regionals, NBA All-Star Game, numerous college football games, boxing matches, Texas high school football championships, Academy of Country Music Awards, the NFL Draft, and numerous concerts. 
 
"When we were building our stadium as we went through it, we said, 'Hey, it's going to be an amazing home for the Cowboys,' " Stephen Jones said. "Then our vision started growing in terms of thinking, 'It needs to be more than just 10 games a year.'
 
"First and foremost, we wanted it to be about football — the Cotton Bowl and other college games, the national collegiate championship game, high school state championships — but be able to host other major events as well.
 
"We had a stadium that was designed for about $750 million and then we decided 'We want this to be extra special. We need to put about another $400 to $500 million in it.' "
 
The total cost ended up being $1.3 billion.
 
Houston Nutt coached Ole Miss in the last Classic played at the old stadium and the first one at AT&T Stadium.
 
Nutt, a Cotton Bowl Hall of Fame inductee with a 3-1 coaching record at Arkansas and Ole Miss, said he always appreciated the Cotton Bowl as a historical venue, but that AT&T Stadium has taken the game to another level.
 
"Growing up in our family, the Cotton Bowl Classic was always THE bowl," said Nutt, who grew up in Little Rock, Ark. "We knew exactly what time the Cotton Bowl was coming on. We couldn't wait.
 
"Now to see it back at the top of the bowls, that's where it belongs. It's such a big, big game, and that's how we've always remembered it. Now it's something that's even bigger and better being part of the playoffs."
 
HOME SWEET HOME
As part of the CBAA's agreement with the Joneses, the staff offices are in AT&T Stadium.
 
"Jerry and Stephen Jones are the reason we're in that stadium," Ewing said. "They have absolutely treated us just like we were one of their own."
 
Jones said having the Cotton Bowl offices at AT&T Stadium was an easy call.
 
"The year-around presence of the Cotton Bowl at the stadium is so important to the aura of saying this is the home of the Cotton Bowl," he said. "It's not just that the game is played here, but this is where the decisions for the Cotton Bowl are made. This is where the heart and soul of the Cotton Bowl lives, and I'm very proud of that."
 
Baker said he can't imagine having a better landlord or business partner than the Jones family.
 
"With Jerry having played in the Cotton Bowl and having won a national championship here, he's always been in our corner," Baker said. "Jerry and his family have been nothing but supportive of everything we tried to do here."