According to many reports, the College Football Playoff stakeholders have signed a six-year,$ 7.8 billion television extension with ESPN, which could further the financial disparities between intercollegiate athletics. Important details around the championship’s best format, yet, remain undecided.
The CFP was already planned to increase to a 12-team style for the upcoming season, and it might even get bigger in 2026-27. The CFP was scheduled to agree to a telecast contract extension with ESPN through 2031-32, but Friday’s statement meets that question’s unsettled future size. According to The Athletic, ESPN would not be willing to pay more for the more products even if the playoff expanded to 14 teams.

The Pac- 12 Convention, which will quickly have only Washington State and Oregon State, was delayed due to its uncertain future while nine FBS meetings and Notre Dame made a unanimous decision to support the fresh ESPN agreement.
Under the new CFP arrangement, Big Ten and SEC members are set to each receive about$ 21 million annually, according to multiple reports, while ACC programs get approximately$ 13 million and Big 12 members$ 12 million. Notre Dame, which is independent, is expected to receive approximately$ 12 million as well. Facebook and ESPN were the first to publish the media.
The new payouts may be adjusted in the future based on either the conference’s performance or the following round of continuous conference reshuffling because they are partially dependent on those events ‘ ability to produce CFP contenders in the past and their pending expansion.
Meanwhile, Group of Five schools will split 9 % of the earnings, which works out to slightly less than$ 2 million per institution. Recently, Power Five plans each received about$ 5 million per year from the four- group CFP design.
The richest four conferences ‘ new, significant payout structure sets the stage for further discussion about whether to expand the playoffs to 14 clubs in 2026. The setup even allows the Big Ten and SEC negotiation power in communicating, for example, a fixed number of automated submissions or primary- round techniques.
Negotiations were complicated by the recent period of meeting restructuring, which has included the breakdown of the Pac- 12, the Big Ten’s inclusion of Oregon, Southern California, UCLA and Washington, and Oklahoma and Texas joining the SEC.
Five automated finals and seven at-large comments will make up the 12-team CFP format for 2024 and 2025, which will ensure a spot for a Group of Five winner now that the Power Five has changed into a Power Four.
The new economic framework will now continue to give Big Ten and SEC teams an advantage while acting as an extra incentive to lure additional schools.
The SEC took in$ 852.5 million in total revenue during its 2023 fiscal year, according to its most recent tax filings, a$ 50 million increase over FY22. The SEC and the Big Ten established a joint expert group last month to “reach out the major challenges facing school athletics and the opportunities for the improvement of the student-athlete experience.”