Well, if you were wondering how you were going to watch the expanded College Football Playoff next year, a deal announced on Monday, November 9, has officially cleared up those questions.
Weeks after announcing the College Football Playoff would expand to 24 teams in the 2027-28 season, a broadcast home for all those new games has officially been revealed. Initially reported by ESPN’s Heather Dinich, the CFP and ESPN have agreed to a five-year, $1.7 billion deal “that will expand the field to 24 teams in 2027 with ESPN as its continued broadcast partner.” The move, Dinich reports, will effectively also eliminate the Power 4 conference championship games.
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In the agreement, which will run through the 2032 season, ESPN will have the right to sublicense select games in addition to its existing sublicense with TNT Sports, which was announced in May 2024. “Additional details regarding programming plans and distribution of the expanded playoff will be announced at a later date,” the company said in a news release. At least three games from each of the new CFP First Round and CFP Second Round will be broadcast on ABC, on top of the current broadcast of one semifinal, one quarterfinal and one CFP First Round game in the 12-team format.
The deal also opens up the 24-team field to include 19 at-large bids for the playoff, the Power 4 Conference champions (as determined by each league), and the highest-ranked Group of 6 team. Those champions are likely going to be decided by regular-season standings. “There will no longer be a guarantee for Notre Dame if it’s not ranked high enough to earn one of the at-large bids,” Dinich reported. “The CFP selection committee will continue to rank its top 25 teams for inclusion, and could consider expanding its weekly ranking list to 30 teams to reveal which programs are on the bubble.”
The top 8 teams will receive byes, Dinich added, and those teams then get a home game to start their part of the bracket. The top 2 seeds from then on out will have “the best path all the way through.”
So who’s ready for more college football? Or is this going too far? Let us know in box below.
This article originally published at Will 24-team College Football Playoff ruin the sport? ESPN to air all games for $1.7B.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
