The ever-shifting college football landscape appears to be heading toward yet more change.
The College Football Playoff announced Tuesday that it will begin negotiations with rights partner ESPN about a potential expansion to a 24-team field, describing the talks as “an opportunity to engage with ESPN and gather additional information to help determine a path forward.”
ESPN is in the second of a six-year deal extension with the CFP that guarantees it rights to all games under a 12 or 14-team format — a minimum of 11 under the current 12-team format and a maximum of 13 under a hypothetical 14-team expansion. It will retain its current game inventory if the CFP expands beyond 14 teams, but would have to negotiate for rights to the additional games, according to ESPN reporter Heather Dinich.
Under a 24-team format, there would be ten additional games on top of the 13 ESPN already owns as part of its current deal. ESPN has the right of first refusal, which the CFP is apparently triggering with its negotiating window, after which point the rights would hit the open market — with ESPN retaining “certain matching rights,” per Dinich.
The 30-day negotiating window could reportedly open as soon as Wednesday.
The CFP has not yet committed to a 24-team format and is said to be exploring whether it can generate enough additional media rights revenue to justify the scheduling changes a 24-team format would require — namely the elimination of conference championship weekend. Between the “Power 4” conference title games, that figure could amount to $200 million per Dinich or $250 million per Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports.
ESPN’s current CFP rights deal is worth a reported $1.3 billion per year, though the network is recouping at least some of that revenue through a sublicensing agreement with TNT Sports. An additional $200-250 million per year would put the CFP around the $1.6 billion/year mark.
