The College Football Playoff doubled its field, and ESPN is paying more, but the new money after the loss of conference title games is thin. Schools are also betting that fans who didn’t want this will keep watching.
College football’s postseason will grow from 12 teams to 24 in 2027, and the check is smaller than the headline suggests. The College Football Playoff and ESPN finalized the deal on Monday, and the CFP did not disclose financial terms.
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ESPN reported that the network will pay an average of $345 million more per year for five years, about $1.7 billion in all. That sits on top of the roughly $1.3 billion a year ESPN already pays under a six-year, $7.8 billion contract that runs through the 2031 season.
The Money Left After The Title Games Go
The four Power 4 conferences each said this season’s championship game will be its last. They needed the December calendar space, and the games carried real money.
People familiar with the talks put the combined value of those games at about $250 million. ESPN holds the rights to the ACC, Big 12 and SEC games and gets about $140 million a year back from the cancellations, according to its reporting. That cuts its real cost for the new games to roughly $205 million. Fox, which owns the Big Ten game, is expected to get back about $50 million.
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After the $200 million already flowing to conferences for those title game rights, the surplus is about $145 million. That works out to a little more than $2 million per school per year, though the split will not be equal. Big Ten and SEC programs would gain $2.5 million to $3 million annually, while ACC and Big 12 programs would gain $1 million to $1.5 million.
For comparison, last season conferences received $4 million for each team that made the playoff and another $4 million for each team that reached the quarterfinals. ESPN bid on 10 of the 12 new games, so $205 million in net cost is about $20.5 million per game.
Why Schools Took A Smaller Payoff
Roster spending has climbed to tens of millions of dollars at many programs in the revenue-sharing era. Leaders argued that more schools need a credible shot at the postseason to justify that spending.
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Georgia coach Kirby Smart raised concerns about finances at the SEC spring meetings in May. He said he was “really more worried about the financial burden that we’re under right now of paying for all of the athletic department.“
What Fans Told The CFP
In August, the CFP commissioned a Nielsen Sports survey. It found 63 percent of “avid fans” and 76 percent of “casual fans” wanted no expansion. Fewer than 10 percent of either group favored 24 teams.
Of the fans who opposed expansion, 71 percent said they would not watch fewer games if the field grew. CFP executive director Rich Clark said fan sentiment “was certainly weighed into the decision.“
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He added: “Ultimately, we just need to make a spectacular playoff.“
Nick Dawson, the network’s senior vice president for college sports programming, said of the regular-season effect: “In all honesty, it’s impossible to know for sure.” The CFP’s media advisors warned commissioners that weaker regular-season interest could hurt their next TV deals.
The SEC title game drew roughly 17 million viewers last season. That was the seventh-most-watched game of the year and more than two of the first-round playoff games.
The Programs Outside The Bracket
Last season, 82 teams were bowl-eligible, and 12 played in the playoff. That left 70 teams for the bowl system. Eleven of the 12 added spots would have gone to Power 4 teams under last year’s final rankings, with the other going to Notre Dame.
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ESPN owns and operates several of those bowls. Dawson said, “No decisions have been made at this time” on their fate. The network also said the system still has “a need for additional postseason opportunities.“
The Group of 6 gets one guaranteed bid and a shot at the 19 at-large spots. Mid-American Conference commissioner Jon Steinbrecher cautioned in a statement that “a larger playoff does not necessarily mean greater financial benefits for all conferences and institutions.“
The conferences chose access over a windfall. Whether that is smart depends on fans who told pollsters they did not want it.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
