The College Football Playoff (CFP) system may be going through another round of expansion.
This week, the College Football Playoff Management Committee (CFPMC) met at the Big Ten headquarters in Rosemont, Illinois, near Chicago, to discuss expanding the playoff system from 12 teams to 24. The CFP is in its third year of a 12-team playoff structure, after running a four-team playoff for 10 years.
The CFPMC, which includes commissioners from athletic conferences and Notre Dame’s athletic director Pete Bevacqua, is in talks with ESPN over the media rights for additional games needed to fit a 24-team playoff structure. ESPN, which has the media rights to the CFP, is in a 30-day exclusive negotiation window that ends on Friday, October 9th.
If ESPN does not reach a deal with the committee, the CFPMC can talk with other networks about the additional games. Starting in the 2026-2027 season, ESPN began a new six-year media rights contract valued at $7.8 billion to televise the CFP through the 2031-2032 football season.
According to ESPN, if the playoff structure remains at 12 teams or expands to 14, it will retain the CFP rights. If ESPN does not agree to a media rights deal for the 10 additional games, it will still retain its media rights to televise CFP games through the 2031-2032 football season.
The CFPMC said discussions with ESPN are confidential, and it has not yet decided whether to expand.
Rich Clark, the executive director for the CFPMC, said after the meeting that the committee “worked through a lot of the other issues that are associated with expansion, and those things needed to happen before we started any kind of a negotiation,” according to ESPN.
“[Money] is not the only consideration, but right now it is an unknown because we have no idea what the revenue that could be generated is,” he added.
Clark noted discussions are “detailed and in-depth,” with “many issues to cover.”
“It’s a 30-day window for a reason, and we may need to use it all,” he said, according to ESPN.
Yahoo Sports reported that the CFP expanding to 24 teams is a “foregone conclusion.”
The outlet noted that if the CFP does expand, it would mean eliminating conference championship games.
Media reports estimate the Power Four conference championship games that could be eliminated are worth between $200 million and $250 million in media value.
If ESPN or another media outlet agrees with the CFPMC to a media rights deal to televise additional games, the final structure will need approval by Tuesday, December 1, to determine whether to use the new playoff format for the 2027-2028 football season.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at [email protected].
