Fox Sports is weighing a “massive” bid to snatch all or parts of the College Football Playoff away from ESPN, according to Front Office Sports.
FOS reports the strategy would make sense for Fox. The network’s Big Noon Kickoff pregame show has closed the TV ratings gap against ESPN’s iconic College GameDay. And Fox’s gambit to place its top games in the noon Saturday window, rather than in primetime, has proven to be a brilliant programming stroke by the company’s head of strategy and analytics, Mike Mulvihill.
This development comes after Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch warned Wall Street that it was “highly unlikely” he’d bid on the NBA against ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports. According to sources, Murdoch and Co. are building a war chest for other rights negotiations. (At the same time, another source vowed that Fox would not overpay for the CFP. The network is counting on ESPN’s newly disciplined approach to rights negotiations.)
Fox and other networks will take their shot as the CFP expands to 12 teams in 2024. In ’26, the rights to the entire package will go up for bid, including for the CFP National Championship. Coming up on the outside is NBC Sports, which added Big Ten Conference rights to its existing Notre Dame package. Along with the NBA’s rights, the CFP’s will be among the most eagerly sought-out sports rights in 2024.
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