The College Football Playoff is staying on ESPN through the beginning of the next decade.
The Athletic reported Tuesday that ESPN has reached a six-year, $1.3 billion/year renewal of its College Football Playoff rights deal through the 2031-32 season. ESPN itself was first to report late last year that the company was close to a deal.
While ESPN will remain the exclusive CFP rightsholder — a position it has held dating back to the final years of the playoff predecessor Bowl Championship Series — the new deal may still satisfy CFP executives’ publicly-stated desire for multiple broadcast partners.
As previously reported, ESPN’s contract includes the right to sublicense games to other networks, opening the door for a competitor like FOX, CBS or even Amazon to potentially air games. Under the 12-team format that begins next season, there will be 11 total playoff games — four in the first round, four in the quarterfinals, the two semifinals and the National Championship — meaning that there will be sufficient inventory available for ESPN to potentially shop.
It is likely that any sublicensed games would take place in the low-wattage early rounds of the playoffs, and it is worth questioning whether there will even be sufficient interest from competitors for such games. The scenario floated by Front Office Sports last year — the National Championship alternating between networks a la the Super Bowl — will no doubt be a nonstarter.
That the CFP is remaining with ESPN is another indication that the sports rights market may not be as flush with competitors as the leagues may have hoped. There were any number of outlets said to be interested in the rights — from the obvious ones like FOX to dark horses like Warner Bros. Discovery — and CFP executives spoke on the record of their openness to having games air exclusively on streaming.
Some of those possibilities remain on the table, but it is surely the case that the CFP was hoping for any newcomers to bid on the open market, rather than pick up a few games ESPN was willing to part with.
The price tag of $1.3 billion a year is considerable, but also only double the current level of $685 million. Given the playoff now consists of 11 meaningful games, compared to three meaningful games and four exhibitions in the current format, the new deal is a borderline bargain — or at least more of one than the current contract. There had been talk, reported by Front Office Sports, of the CFP going for as much as $2 billion a year.
The CFP deal is the second major college rights agreement ESPN has reached this year. The company renewed its deal with the NCAA for its various championships — excluding men’s basketball — for $110 million/year. As with the CFP deal, that is a big increase over the previous contract ($40 million/year), but well below some of the numbers that had been floated publicly during negotiations.
