Despite numerous indications to the contrary, including on-the-record comments from executives, the College Football Playoff is reportedly negotiating a new exclusive deal with ESPN.
ESPN and the CFP are in negotiations on a six-year media rights extension that would keep the entire playoff on the ESPN family of networks, ESPN.com reported Monday, a marked shift from initial plans to split the rights among multiple partners. Front Office Sports reported as recently as Thursday that Fox Sports was planning a sizable bid for all or part of the rights.
Per the ESPN report, the company is planning to bid as much as $1.3 billion/year for the rights and would have the ability to sub-license games to other companies, per CFP approval. Fox Sports is said to be interested in a sub-licensing agreement.
ESPN has held rights to the entire College Football Playoff (and its predecessor, the Bowl Championship Series) since the 2010-11 season, and corporate sibling ABC held exclusive rights to the BCS from the 1998-99 season through 2005-06. The only other network to carry a BCS bowl was FOX, the primary rightsholder from 2006-07 through 2009-10 (ABC continued to air the Rose Bowl in those years, including the 2010 national championship hosted at the venue).
The possibility of the CFP settling for the status quo after floating major changes is in keeping with some very recent precedent. The NCAA just announced last week that it has extended its deal with ESPN for the majority of its championships, opting to continue bundling those events together rather than selling some of those rights individually, as had been expected.
More broadly, there are indications that properties coming to market are having to temper expectations, or otherwise alter their plans, in the face of a difficult marketplace. NASCAR, for example, planned to sell a new six-race package of midseason races as part of its new media rights deal, but had to amend that to two five-race packages.
(News from ESPN.com 1.8)
