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- Thread starter ScriptOhio
- Start date
Ridiculous shit. Let's just skip the regular schedule and start the playoffs at week 1 for everyone!
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
Conferences ‘reach’ new College Football Playoff agreement ahead of US$7.8bn ESPN TV deal - SportsPro
MoU between major conferences and the independent Notre Dame confirms 12-team CFP and opens door to 14-team tournament.
www.sportspromedia.com
Conferences ‘reach’ new College Football Playoff agreement ahead of US$7.8bn ESPN TV deal
MoU confirms 12-team CFP and opens door to 14-team tournament.
SHARE THIS ARTICLE- ESPN waiting in the wings with new broadcast deal
- 12-team tournament from 2026 all but confirmed
- Big Ten and SEC secure greater control over format
All nine Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college conferences and the independent Notre Dame have agreed to the next College Football Playoff (CFP) contract ahead of a reported US$7.8 billion domestic broadcast deal with ESPN.
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) dictates an expanded 12-team format from 2026 with scope for a 14-team structure to be implemented in the future.
The field would be made up of the five highest-ranked conference champions and the next nine highest-ranked schools from any conference.
In practice, this would mean the winners of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Big Ten, Southeastern Conference (SEC) and Big 12 would be included, with the highest ranked ‘group of five’ champion.
The group of five comprises the American Athletic Conference (AAC), Conference USA (CUSA), Mid-American Conference (MAC), Mountain West Conference (MWC), and Sun Belt Conference (SBC).
The Pac-12, which was previously considered a big five conference before its effective implosion, has a scheduling agreement with the MWC for the 2024 season, but will not be able to submit a champion given it has only two remaining teams – six less than the minimum number for consideration. However, Oregon State and Washington State will both be able to qualify for the post-season through other means.
Notre Dame, which is not part of any conference and has its own broadcast deal with NBC, is also said to have been granted certain protections.
The Big Ten and SEC will have the majority of control over the new format. Commissioners at the other FBS conferences and at Notre Dame agreed to such an arrangement in exchange for a series of concessions that safeguarded their positions within the new structure.
ESPN says the group of five, in particular, feared being excluded from the CFP if they didn’t agree to the tradeoff, which ensures the final deal will adhere to certain non-negotiable parameters.
The most significant changes are likely to involve finances, with Big Ten and SEC schools receiving US$21 million, ACC teams US$13 million and Big 12 programmes US$12 million. Group of five schools will receive US$1.8 million. Washington State and Oregon State, both of which earned up to US$7 million as members of the Pac-12, will receive just US$360,000 in the new deal – the only two schools to see their income decrease.
When the deal is finalised, it is expected the CFP will ratify a new television deal with ESPN worth US$1.3 billion a year – more than double the existing US$608 million arrangement.
The Disney-owned broadcaster has shown the semi-finals and finals of the CFP since the first edition of the revamped post-season was held in 2014. Its contract for the latter stages of the tournament was due to expire in 2026.
If confirmed, the deal will mean ESPN has virtually every single NCAA college sports championship apart from the men’s March Madness college basketball tournament, which is aired by CBS and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD).
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