College Football Playoff Expansion is here. The postseason’s committee finalized a five-year, $1.7 billion deal with ESPN that will expand the playoff to 24 teams beginning in 2027, the two organizations confirmed on Monday.
As part of the deal, the “Power Four” athletic conferences — the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC — will no longer host their lucrative conference championship games in December.
“We are thrilled to continue our broadcast relationship with ESPN, which has been a terrific partner of the CFP since its inception,” CFP executive director Rich Clark said Monday in a statement. “Like the CFP, ESPN celebrates everything that makes the sport of college football so great.”
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The expansion, which would feature an increase from the 11 games planned for this season’s playoff, came with a hefty price tag. ESPN reported that the network would pay an additional $345 million per year for the expanded offering.
“ESPN and the College Football Playoff have worked collaboratively for more than a decade to make the CFP one of the marquee events in all of sports, and we remain firmly committed to elevating it in its new, expanded 24-team format,” ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement.
The exact format and schedule for the expanded playoff — and its effect on the existing bowl games — remain unclear.
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