The College Football Playoff has reached a “handshake agreement” with ESPN to broadcast a 24-team playoff beginning in the 2027 season, sources told ESPN on Friday.
Though there is still significant work to be done on paper, and everything is still subject to board approval across all involved parties, the agreement is a major step toward doubling the postseason path to the national title starting next year.
The CFP and ESPN have been negotiating a new deal for the network to remain its broadcast partner in a seismic move that is also expected to eliminate the lucrative Power 4 conference championship games and start the season a week earlier.
Though final details have yet to be announced, discussions about the 24-team field have included 19 at-large bids, the Power 4 conference champions as determined by each league and the highest-ranked Group of 6 team.
Sources told ESPN’s Pete Thamel that the average additional payment from ESPN for the expanded playoff is $345 million annually for the next five years. That is in addition to the average of $1.3 billion annually that ESPN is already paying over that time.
Of that new $345 million, ESPN will essentially be paying only $205 million, as the network is getting back $140 million annually from the cancelation of the three power conference championship games that the network owns the television rights to broadcast.
Sources told Thamel that Fox is expected to get back about $50 million annually for the cancellation of the Big Ten title game, which Fox owns the rights to televise.
The New Year’s Six bowls (Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, Peach, Orange and Cotton) are still expected to host the quarterfinals and semifinals, with the national championship game remaining in January.
Under the proposed plan, teams seeded Nos. 1-8 would earn a first-round bye followed by a home game. Teams 9-16 would host a first-round game.
The historic change to the sport’s postseason is expected just two seasons after the field tripled from four to 12 teams. In March 2024, ESPN and the CFP agreed to a six-year, $7.8 billion contract that ensured the network would remain the sole media rights holder of the event through the 2031-32 season.
Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti, whose conference has been the driving force behind the 24-team model, has pushed back against the notion that an expanded playoff will devalue the regular season, saying the system includes “tiered incentives.”
On Sept. 9, ESPN and the CFP entered a 30-day negotiation window to determine the value of a 24-team field. The window closed Oct. 9, but discussions continued through this week.
