The College Football Playoff and ESPN have agreed to a new six-year, $7.8 billion deal that ensures the network will remain the sole owner of the event's broadcast rights through the 2031-32 season, it was jointly announced Tuesday.
ESPN, which has had exclusive broadcast rights since the CFP began in 2015, will extend its package for the final two years of the current 12-year deal, which runs through the 2025-26 season. The CFP is introducing a 12-team format for the 2024-25 season, and ESPN will add the four new first-round games each year to the network's existing coverage of the New Year's Six Bowls (now quarterfinals and semifinals). and the CFP National Championship game.
ESPN also secured a six-year deal that will cost $1.3 billion annually beginning with the 2026-27 season and includes exclusive rights to all rounds of the expanded playoffs along with continued exclusive rights to all CFP-connected programming. such as CFP selection. program, weekly Top 25 ranking shows and more.
“ESPN has worked closely with the College Football Playoff over the past decade to build one of the premier events in American sports,” ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement. “We look forward to enhancing our valued relationship over the next two years and then continuing it for six more as we embark on this new, expanded playoff era.
“This agreement further cements ESPN as the home of college football, as well as the destination for the vast majority of major college championships over the next eight years.”
The high price reflects the increase in games, as the current deal was originally built for seven games (including the New Year's Six Bowls and the national championship), and only three were actually playoff games (the two semifinals and the national title game). . The new contract is set for 11 or 13 games, all of which are playoff games, in a 12- or 14-team field.
“We feel very good about the value of what we are receiving in return for the financial payments,” said Nick Dawson, senior vice president of college sports programming and acquisitions at ESPN. “We firmly believe that the event is going to be better, starting this fall with 12 teams, just in terms of how it will captivate the country.”
Beginning in 2026-27, the CFP National Championship game will air on ABC in addition to ESPN's MegaCast presentation. The new deal includes broad rights to simulcast or MegaCast CFP games across all Walt Disney Company platforms, including TWDC's direct-to-consumer offerings.
Dawson said he doesn't expect it to change much in the way the public views these games and that ABC and ESPN will be the “primary vehicles for moving the deal forward.”
“There is the right and flexibility to make first-round games on direct-to-consumer streaming services, but as of now, no decision has been made on our part to even activate that right,” Dawson said. “A lot of this is future-proofing in a world that's essentially eight years long, and we feel very good about the flexibility we have, but in the short term, I don't think fans expect to see much difference in terms of how they are distributed.” games on traditional linear television.
The CFP format for this season and next will be five automatic qualifiers from the five highest-ranked conference champions and seven at-large bids. Last week, all nine FBS commissioners and Notre Dame agreed that the playoffs will include at least 12 teams in 2026 and beyond. The CFP has full authority to determine the format.
While multiple sources have told ESPN that the CFP is leaning toward a 14-team field, the number of teams and how they will qualify for the CFP has not been determined beyond the next two seasons. There are protections for ACC, Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 conference champions Notre Dame and the top-ranked Group of 5 champion in the new contract.
Dawson said the new television deal specifically addresses the 12- and 14-team models, but also includes “a mechanism to address if they expand beyond 14 teams.”
“I think at some point you start to have a real impact in the regular season and conference championship games,” Dawson said. “I feel like they've done a great job so far designing the 12-team model, and potentially even the 14-team model, although we would still need to understand exactly what that looks like… I'm concerned “The more you grow, beyond that, I think it becomes almost impossible to prevent any damage from happening there.”
The CFP has granted ESPN the right to sublicense a select number of games in both the amended two-year deal and the new six-year extension.
“As we sit here today, no decision has been made on our part as to whether we will pursue it or not,” Dawson said. “It's just a right in the deal from now on.”
Before agreeing to the media rights deal with ESPN, the nine FBS commissioners and Notre Dame leaders had to first agree to sign a memorandum of understanding last week that outlined in general terms what the next contract would look like. They agreed to move forward with a new revenue sharing plan that will codify greater financial separation of the expanded Big Ten and SEC from everyone else in college athletics.
The financial distribution for the expected 14-team playoff will be radically different. Annually, for example, Big Ten and SEC schools will each earn more than $21 million, a dramatic increase from the nearly $5.5 million currently paid to schools in the Power 5 conferences.
In the ACC, schools will receive more than $13 million annually and the Big 12 schools will receive more than $12 million each. Notre Dame is also expected to receive more than $12 million, and sources told ESPN there will be a financial incentive for any independent team that reaches the CFP.
There will no longer be a CFP participation bonus for any of the other leagues, a detail that was frustrating to some Group of 5 leaders. Annual payments for Group of 5 schools will increase to just under $1.8 million from the current $1.5 million. million.
For now, the CFP is treating Oregon State and Washington State as independent schools in 2026 and beyond. Given the uncertain status of the conference with 10 schools leaving next season, new Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould did not sign the memorandum of understanding last week or the new six-year deal with ESPN, but she agreed to the contract modified with the chain for the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
Now that an agreement has been reached on revenue and media rights, the most pressing question that remains is what the format will look like in 2026 and beyond. It is unknown if CFP leaders will allow an edition of the 12-team field to be played or decide on a format in the coming months. CFP and ESPN leaders hope this fall's 12-team field will generate even more fan interest than in the past.
“We firmly believe this fall will be an exciting time for college football fans,” Dawson said. “I think the right balance has been struck here between access and continuing to capture the best teams in the country, and we're excited to implement that this fall.”
The CFP has contributed to the most-watched days in ESPN's nearly 45-year history, led by the first-ever CFP semifinals in 2015, which propelled ESPN to 11.6 million average viewers for New Year's Day. The CFP semifinals in 2018, 2022 and 2024 anchored ESPN to round out the top four all-day ratings in network history. College football on ESPN ranks in the top 15 and more than 50 of the top 100 most-watched cable shows on record (since 1987), with eight of the top 10 coming directly from the CFP semifinals or national title games.
In 2023-24, ESPN's extensive coverage of the CFP generated a record-breaking year. The three-game CFP scored its most-watched matchups in six years (since Year 4) and was third-best of the CFP era with 23.6 million viewers and 15% year-over-year viewership growth across the trio of games. The CFP National Championship and New Year's Six averaged 15.1 million viewers, the best viewership in five years and the fifth-highest in the CFP's last decade.
The deal with the CFP marks the second significant extension of ESPN's college sports media rights in 2024, following the eight-year deal with the NCAA in January that encompasses exclusive rights to 40 NCAA championship events. ESPN now has exclusive domestic rights to all major college championships outside of men's basketball and international rights to all major college championships.
“This new agreement solidifies the future of College Football Playoff broadcasting for many years to come,” said Mississippi State President Mark Keenum, chairman of the CFP board of directors. “ESPN has been a key part of the playoffs' overwhelming success over these first 10 years. The addition of ABC to this expanded relationship is just the next step in the continued growth of one of the premier sporting events of the year.”
