The College Football Playoff and ESPN have agreed on a six-year extension worth a total of $7.8 billion that will keep playoff games on the ESPN family of networks through the 2031-32 season, according to The Athletic. The playoff still has two years remaining on its current deal with ESPN, with the network holding rights to first-round, quarterfinal, semifinal and championship games for the 12-team playoff, which will make its debut following the 2024 regular season. Under the new extension, ESPN would have the ability to sublicense games to other networks.
The full contract will not be complete until CFP leaders decide on a new format for the 12-team model following the Pac-12’s effective dissolution.
That format moving forward could be a real sticky point. The College Football Playoff Management Committee initially agreed on a 6+6 model for the expanded 12-team format, in which the six highest-ranked conference champions would automatically qualify and the remaining “at-large” bids would go to the next six highest-ranked teams.
But since 10 schools left the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC, leaving Oregon State and Washington State in their wake, several prolific figures have pushed for a 5+7 model that would decrease the number of automatic conference champion bids by one while leaving an extra slot for an at-large team. This would benefit power conferences like the Big Ten and SEC, which added to their arsenal of perennial contenders during the latest wave of realignment.
According to CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd, the CFP Management Committee met on Jan. 8 — the day of Michigan’s College Football Playoff National Championship win — to adopt a new model. The Pac-12, with Washington State president Kirk Schulz as its representative, asked to delay the vote.
The management committee is supposed to convene again on Feb. 20 to vote on the 5+7 model, according to ESPN. However, the Pac-12 would still need to agree to the change for it to actually take effect.
That isn’t a guarantee. Schulz will ask CFP leaders ahead of next week’s meeting to keep the Pac-12’s status as a power conference in regards to revenue rights and voting powers, according to Yahoo Sports. The proposal would take effect in 2026, which marks the start of any new College Football Playoff contract. The Pac-12 is guaranteed equal revenue share in 2024 and 2025 under the current contract.
“We’ve been an Autonomy Five school and have resourced ourselves at that level for 25-30 years,” Schulz told Yahoo Sports. “Just because we were left standing in musical chairs, we just don’t feel that we should be relegated by no fault of our own.”
Still, momentum seems to be swinging towards the 5+7 model.
“I would be shocked if we don’t have a 5-7 playoff,” CFP Board of Managers chairman Mark Keenum, president at Mississippi State, told Dodd.
