College football’s national champion will be crowned on broadcast television for the first time since 2010 under new College Football Playoff media rights deal with ESPN.
The College Football Playoff National Championship will begin airing on ABC as of the 2026-27 season as part of the new CFP media rights extension with ESPN that was announced on Tuesday. College football’s national champion has been crowned on cable every year dating back to the 2010-11 season. ABC last carried the national title game in 2010, after having done so from 1999-2006. FOX aired the game from 2007-09.
The CFP title game is just the latest marquee property to shift from ESPN to ABC. The NCAA women’s basketball national title game moved from ESPN to ABC last season and immediately vaulted to its largest audience of the Nielsen people meter era — nearly ten million viewers. ESPN’s Monday Night Football package has steadily included more ABC games, including a full season of games last fall due to the Hollywood actors and writers strikes.
The title game will still have a heavy cable presence as ESPN will continue to offer its “Megacast” coverage across its platforms.
The new deal does not go into effect until the 2026-27 season. In the meantime, ESPN has also acquired rights to the new first round of playoff games under the 12-team format that begins this coming season.
As had been reportedly previously, the new deal allows ESPN to sublicense some playoff games to other outlets as soon as this season. A specific number was not given.
Throughout negotiations, the CFP had been vocal about its desire to have games air across multiple media companies. ESPN is now in business with competitors Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery on a new joint streaming service, and while executives have emphasized that the companies will not be working together on sports rights, one imagines that Fox in particular would be well-positioned to acquire some of those games.
