ESPN and College Football Playoff agree to new $7.8BILLION deal to keep postseason on the network through the 2031-32 season

ESPN will remain the home of the College Football Playoff through the 2031-32 season sealing a new $7.8billion deal Tuesday.

The network will retain exclusive rights to the postseason for the next six seasons, with the National Championship game moving to ESPN's parent network, ABC, from 2026-27. Michigan beat Washington to win the 2023 final in Houston.

The CFP and participating conferences will earn $1.3bn annually as part of this deal, which was agreed in principle weeks ago and finalized - alongside a new revenue-sharing plan - last week.

'It´s a significant day for the CFP and for the future of college football,' CFP executive director Bill Hancock said. 'The depth of coverage that ESPN gives to the sport throughout the season is second to none.'

ESPN has been the home of the CFP's primary broadcast for the championship game through the first 10 years of the playoff, and will remain so for the final two years of the original 12-year deal. 

The Michigan Wolverines won the 2024 National Championship game against Washington

The new agreements with ESPN modify terms of the remaining two years of the current contract to take into account expansion from four to 12 teams, starting with the upcoming season.

The conferences agreed to at least a 12-team playoff starting in 2026, but more expansion could be on the way. Hancock said last week that format discussions among the management committee, comprised of Bowl Subdivision conference commissioners and Notre Dame´s athletic director, have been tabled for now.

Nick Dawson, ESPN's senior vice president for programming, said moving the title game to the over-the-air network was a collaborative decision between the CFP and ESPN.

'I think it was something we had expected was coming in a new deal. That having a broadcast network presence would be an important piece as the size and scale of the playoff grew,' Dawson said.

ESPN recently agreed to a new $920m, eight-year deal with the NCAA for the rights to the women's Division I basketball tournament and 39 other championship events.

ESPN will remain the home of the College Football Playoff through the 2031-32 season

The current CFP contracts, including with ESPN, expire after the 2025 football season. The previous deal with ESPN, which included the rights to only three playoff games per season (two semifinals and a championship game) and four marquee bowl games, paid out $470m annually.

During the long and at times contentious expansion negotiations between the conference commissioners, there was generally consensus among the group that the expanded CFP would ideally have multiple media partners after the original 12-year deal with ESPN expired.

Instead, the CFP found a market with few aggressive buyers and ESPN highly motivated to own it all. The deal does allow for ESPN to sublicense a select number of games to other networks.