It’s official — the ESPN family of networks will be the exclusive home of the College Football Playoff until 2031-32. The network will amend the remaining two years on its existing deal with the CFP while simultaneously agreeing to a new six-year deal beginning in 2026-27.
The company today confirmed earlier reports by announcing details of the new CFP media rights agreement. ESPN will expand its current package for the final two years (through the 2025-26 season), adding all four of the new First Round games each year to ESPN’s existing New Year’s Six (now Quarterfinals and Semifinals) and the CFP National Championship rights in the new 12-team playoff that will launch this fall.
In addition, the new six-year agreement includes exclusive rights to all rounds of the expanded playoff – first round, quarterfinal, semifinal, and National Championship, as well as continued exclusive rights to all ancillary programming connected to the playoff, such as the CFP Selection Show, weekly Top 25 Rankings Shows and more. Starting in ’26-27, ESPN will air the CFP Championship Game on ABC.
Interestingly, ESPN can now sublicense games to other networks should it so choose, opening the door for FOX, CBS, or NBC to broadcast a College Football Playoff game for the first time.
“ESPN has worked very closely with the College Football Playoff over the past decade to build one of the most prominent events in American sports. We look forward to enhancing our valued relationship over the next two years, and then continuing it for six more as we embark on this new, expanded playoff era,” said ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro. “This agreement further solidifies ESPN as the home of college football, as well as the destination for the vast majority of major college championships for the next eight years.”
Just as college football is second only to the NFL in terms of popularity, the CFP was second only to the NFL Playoffs in terms of viewership — but not by much. 27.2 million people tuned in to Michigan-Alabama in the CFP Playoffs, while the title game between Michigan and Washington drew 25 million viewers. That being said, the lowest-viewed NFL playoff game, the Peacock-exclusive Chiefs/Dolphins Wild Card Game, averaged 23 million, with the games on linear television averaging 40 million viewers.
