Sources: College Football Playoff agrees to new contract with ESPN

College leaders have struck a deal on a new College Football Playoff contract.

Executives from the 10 FBS conferences and Notre Dame agreed Friday to a new contract with ESPN that will begin in 2026, coming to terms on a new revenue-distribution model and protections related to a future playoff format. The news was expected after Big 12 and ACC presidents voted Wednesday to authorize their commissioners to adopt the new framework. The two conferences were viewed as most reluctant to agree to a framework that puts them at a financial disadvantage.

Conference commissioners and leaders from Notre Dame signed memorandums of understanding on the concepts previously reported by Yahoo Sports as it relates to revenue and format as well as the new deal with ESPN.

The new television contract with ESPN is a six-year extension through the 2031 playoff and will pay the CFP $1.3 billion annually — about three times the amount the network distributed for the four-team version. Those figures were reported by ESPN itself in a story in January.

A playoff format is not expected to be finalized until a later date, though protections and guarantees related to a 12- or 14-team format are part of the agreement. The champions of the four major conferences and the highest ranked Group of Five champion will earn an automatic qualifying spot into any playoff.

Notre Dame is expected to have its own protections related to a format. The Irish can earn a guaranteed at-large spot based on their CFP ranking. That guarantee is contingent, however, on the number of automatic qualifiers in a finalized format.

How to distribute the money was an intense and at times contentious process among conference commissioners — a debate that started in earnest about six months ago.

As detailed in a Yahoo Sports story last Friday, the new revenue-distribution model…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/sources-college-football-playoff-agrees-to-new-contract-with-espn-161830007.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-03-15 16:18:30

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