College Football Playoff expansion to 24 teams, Digi Mart USA News: After months of speculation and discussion, College Football Playoff expansion is reportedly moving forward. The CFP has agreed to a five-year, nearly $1.7 billion media rights deal that paves the way for the bracket to grow to 24 teams in 2027, and conference championships are being eliminated, according to On3’s Pete Nakos.
Talks between the College Football Playoff and ESPN have been ongoing since an exclusive negotiating window opened in September. The CFP released a statement on Oct. 9 confirming the window had closed, but said discussions with ESPN about potential expansion were still taking place.
On Nov. 6, the CFP released a statement confirming it was in the “final stages” of making a decision on expansion to 24 teams. ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that ESPN was gearing up to pay an additional $345 million per year for an expanded field.
“A formal agreement between the CFP and ESPN regarding future media rights in connection with potential expansion is in the final stages of review by the CFP,” the Nov. 6 statement read. “A decision on the agreement will be made following this review.
We will provide additional updates when appropriate.”
The $345 million annual figure would be in addition to the $1.3 billion the network is already paying under the current agreement. However, conference championships are not expected to remain once the College Football Playoff moves to 24 teams.
Because those games would go away, ESPN would receive roughly $140 million back, Thamel reported. That means the network would effectively pay $205 million for the expanded bracket.
ESPN currently holds the rights to the SEC, ACC and Big 12 title games.
Even as media rights talks continued, questions remained about what a 24-team College Football Playoff would look like. As Ross Dellenger noted for On3, concerns about both television and scheduling needed to be worked out.
Weeknight CFP games are likely to come as a result of expansion, Yahoo! Sports reported.
That would help accommodate potential conflicts with the NFL, which has affected TV ratings for first-round games since the 12-team bracket began in 2024.
Starting in the third week of December, the NFL begins playing games on Saturdays, which has already put it against CFP games. Under a 24-team bracket, that would coincide with the second round.
Under the expanded CFP, first- and second-round games would still take place at campus sites, On3 previously reported. From there, games would shift to bowl sites for the quarterfinals and semifinals before the national championship game.
