ESPN, College Football Playoff reach new TV contract extension

The College Football Playoff is staying put with ESPN.

The Athletic reported that the sports group of the Walt Disney Company and the power brokers behind the playoffs reached a massive extension on the current broadcast agreement. Starting in 2026, ESPN will pay $7.8 billion over six seasons for the rights to showcase the soon-to-be expanded postseason, which will feature 12 teams.

Although there are two years left on the ongoing deal, there were questions about how much ESPN would be willing to commit towards keeping the games, which includes a rotating set of classic New Year's Sox bowl games for the national semifinals and the national championship game in early January. It is already committed to billions in rights agreements with the four major male pro leagues, the UFC, Top Rank Boxing, the major tennis bodies and more. However, ESPN extended its omnibus NCAA sports deal in January and remains in play to retain the NBA beyond the 2024-25 season.

An interesting note in The Athletic's report is how ESPN may choose to broadcast the new first-round games.

"Over the final two years of its current agreement, ESPN holds the rights to the new set of first-round games held at on-campus sites, in addition to the quarterfinals, semifinals and championship games. It is not yet known what the fee of the first-round games will be for the next two seasons. The quarterfinals will be played at the current New Year’s Six bowls, whose rights were already owned by ESPN.

"Over the course of the contract, ESPN will have the ability to sublicense games, meaning another network or digital player could air Playoff games, but it would be at Disney-owned ESPN’s discretion."

Perhaps this is where the future streaming platform in conjunction with Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox comes into play. That alliance was formed with the idea of sharing the costs of rising rights agreements while providing fans a single destination for the sports each company has rights to. Details about this platform remain scarce, but should ESPN choose to sublicense games, it has a partner in Fox that already has rights to big time college football.

Nothing will be set in stone until the matter of the Pac-12 is settled. The conference will shrink to two members this summer and is in danger of losing its seat at the Power 5 table.