College Football Playoff stakeholders have inked a six-year, $7.8 billion television extension with ESPN, according to multiple reports, a deal that stands to escalate the financial disparities atop intercollegiate athletics. Key details around the championship’s ultimate format, however, remain undecided.
The CFP was already set to expand to a 12-team format for this upcoming season, and then potentially grow larger in 2026-27. While the future size of the field remains unresolved, Friday’s announcement meets an internal deadline that was set to ensure the CFP could agree to a broadcast contract extension with ESPN through 2031-32. The Athletic has reported that even if the playoff expands to 14 teams, ESPN would not pay more for the additional inventory.
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Nine FBS conferences and Notre Dame unanimously agreed to the new ESPN deal, while the Pac-12 Conference, which will soon feature just Washington State and Oregon State, held out on account of its uncertain future.
Under the new CFP arrangement, Big Ten and SEC members are set to each receive about $21 million annually, according to multiple reports, while ACC programs get approximately $13 million and Big 12 members $12 million. Notre Dame, which is independent, is expected to receive roughly $12 million as well. ESPN and Yahoo were first to report the news.
The new payouts are in part predicated on those conferences’ ability to produce CFP contenders in the past as well as their pending expansion; they could be adjusted in the future based on either conference performance or the next round in college athletics’ ongoing conference reshuffling.
Meanwhile, Group of Five schools will split 9% of the earnings, which works out to slightly less than $2 million per institution. Previously, Power Five programs each received about $5 million per…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/sec-big-ten-cash-college-182312539.html
Author : Sportico
Publish date : 2024-03-15 18:23:12
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