Report: College Football Playoff, ESPN Agree To 6-Year Extension

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 once CFP leaders sort out the specifics of how the postseason’s new era will operate, sources briefed on the deal told The Athletic.

The full contract’s completion is still contingent on CFP leaders finalizing details of the expanded format in the wake of the implosion of the Pac-12. 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 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 price at which an ESPN news story previously reported the network was discussing a new deal with the CFP.

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. 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.