ESPN, College Football Playoff Agree to Six-Year, $7.8 Billion Extension: Report
ESPN will remain the exclusive home of the College Football Playoff (CFP) for the foreseeable future, according to a report from Andrew Marchand and The Athletic.
According to the report, ESPN and the CFP have reached an agreement on a six-year, $7.8 billion extension that will keep college football’s biggest event on the same network it started with back in 2014. The 12-team Playoff will be on ESPN through the 2031-32 season, given that CFP leadership sorts out the specifics of how the new-look postseason will officially operate.
The Athletic goes on to say that the contract’s completion is contingent on the finalization of details concerning the expanded playoff after the Pac-12 crumbled in 2023.
That means that ESPN won’t be able to officially close the deal until the commissioners and presidents of the CFP’s management committee and board of managers vote on, and pass, the structure and financial plans of the new-look playoff.
The CFP’s current deal with ESPN runs through the 2025-26 season and carries an average payment of $608 million per year, including the semifinal games and championship game, plus the other four New Year’s Six bowls. The reported extension will increase that payout to $1.3 billion per year, more than doubling it over the next six years of the contract.
However, getting everyone involved in the grand scheme of the playoff to agree on how things should look going forward could be tricky.
With the Pac-12 out of the picture, and the SEC and Big Ten putting together an advisory committee, there will be some changes to the original 6+6 plan that was in place. With 10 teams headed out of the Pac-12 this summer, there’s a good chance that the 2024 Playoff field will be the top five ranked conference champs and seven at-large bids.
Still, getting SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti to sign off on something that deems the Big 12 and ACC equal in power to the SEC or Big Ten will be tough.
“Well, we’ve got two more years on a 12-year cycle and then an important conversation about the future,” Sankey told The Athletic last week. “We look at that independently. That’s not part of what we announced with the advisory group. We’re certainly interested in continuing the playoff, but there’s work to do.”
