ESPN has reached agreement with the College Football Playoff to be the exclusive worldwide media rights holder to the expanded CFP.
The new 24-team CFP will begin next season, and ESPN’s deal will run through the 2031 season.
“This moment reinforces our position as the preeminent destination for college sports,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement.
“Since its inception, we’ve worked closely with the CFP to build the playoff into one of the marquee events in sports,” Pitaro said. “Today’s announcement reflects the strength of this partnership and our shared commitment to delivering even more excitement for fans in the years ahead in this new playoff format that the CFP has created.”
Under this new format, the college football regular season will run from the week before Labor Day through Thanksgiving weekend. The first national championship game under the new 24-team model will take place on Jan. 24, 2028, as had been previously scheduled.
CFP executive director Rich Clark said the management committee, which is comprised of the 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua, voted unanimously in favor of the 24-team field and revenue distribution, which will remain the same. Clark also said everyone involved in the decision-making process is aware “of the fan sentiment” regarding an expanded field.
“We’re aware of the fan sentiment and that many fans aren’t in favor of expansion, but that was certainly weighed into the decision and it was considered,” he said. “But ultimately, we just need to make a spectacular playoff. The CFP has a responsibility to our fans. They’re the lifeblood of college football, and we it to them to make this great, and that really is our intent. We appreciate our fans. We did take into account their sentiment, and that was rolled into this decision, but we decided to move forward with it.”
The 24-team field will include 19 at-large bids, the Power 4 conference champions as determined by each league, plus the highest-ranked Group of 6 team. The top eight teams will receive first-round byes, and the first two rounds of games will be held at the campus of the higher seed.
The change in the regular-season calendar brings about the end of the Power 4 conference championship games. Army-Navy game will now be played on what used to be conference championship game weekend, and it will have a standalone window while the playoff-bound teams have a weekend to rest.
On Sept. 9, ESPN and the CFP entered a 30-day negotiation window to determine what the value of a 24-team field would be. The window closed Oct. 9. ESPN will remain the sole rights holder of the event.
“The expanded CFP adds to our industry-leading portfolio of rights and will be an important property for our company,” Pitaro said.
