CFP Extends ESPN Talks on 24-Team Playoff Expansion — SkimNews
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- College Football Playoff announced it will continue media-rights discussions with ESPN for a potential 24-team playoff after a 30-day exclusive negotiating window ended Friday.
- Sources told ESPN the talks will likely extend into next week, and the network retains control of the current 11 playoff games plus the first two newly added ones regardless of any broader deal.
- The 24-team field idea originated in February; CFP leaders last met at Big Ten headquarters in Rosemont, Illinois in late September.
- If the format launches as soon as the 2027 season, Power 4 conference championship games would be eliminated — contracts collectively valued around $200 million, per sources.
- Group of 6 conferences are not required to drop their championship games, and some have privately expressed a strong desire to keep them.
- Under the proposed format, the regular season would start on what is now Week 0 and end Thanksgiving weekend, with the first playoff round likely falling on the first Saturday in December — a window CFP executive director Rich Clark said could open a slot for the Army-Navy game.
- Second-round games would "most likely" be played at campus sites, though Clark said that detail remains under discussion.
Why it matters: Power 4 schools face losing an estimated $200 million in collective conference championship game value if the 24-team playoff launches as soon as 2027, and ESPN's matching rights lock the network into controlling the current 11 games plus the first two new ones regardless of how broader expansion talks resolve — leaving the remaining 10 added games as the real bargaining chip if the CFP goes to the open market.
Ask SkimNews
