ESPN and the College Football Playoff are in agreement on a six-year, $7.8 billion extension that will make the network the home of the 12-team tournament through the 2031-32 season, sources briefed on the deal told The Athletic.
The Athletic reported Tuesday that the full contract’s completion is still contingent on CFP leaders finalizing details of the expanded format in the wake of the Pac-12 Conference's dissolution.
"The CFP’s management committee and board of managers have meetings scheduled for next week and continue to work through the complicated process of settling their outstanding issues," The Athletic's co-authors wrote. "The ESPN deal will not be ratified until the commissioners and presidents vote on the structure and financials of the expanded CFP. ESPN senior vice president of communication Josh Krulewitz and College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock both declined to comment."
ESPN has two years remaining on its current deal, which carries an average payment of $608 million per year and includes the CFP semifinals and championship, plus the other four New Year’s Six bowl games. The six-year extension will cost $1.3 billion per year. The percentage increase in rights fees from the current deal to the extension will be closer than the $608 million-to-$1.3 billion jump appears now, as the current contract’s average fails to include the pricing for the on-campus first-round games.
Over the final two years of its current agreement, ESPN holds the rights to the new set of first-round games held at on-campus sites, in addition to the quarterfinals, semifinals and championship games. It is not yet known what the fee of the first-round games will be for the next two seasons. The quarterfinals will be played at the current New Year’s Six bowls, whose rights were already owned by ESPN.
Over the course of the contract, ESPN will have the ability to sublicense games, meaning another network or digital player could air Playoff games, but it would be at Disney-owned ESPN’s discretion.
The deal would give ESPN control over nearly all Division I college sports championships, outside of the men’s basketball tournament, which is televised by CBS, TNT and their sister networks and platforms through 2032. In early January, ESPN and the NCAA announced a new eight-year, $920 million contract that gives the network the rights to 40 championships, including the women’s basketball tournament. That extension begins in September, The Athletic reported.
