The College Football Playoff will be expanding from 4 teams to 12 teams. When the change can actually be implemented is up in the air, however.
It will be done by 2026 for sure, but there are those that hope to see the new format in place for 2024.
Whether that’s possible or not remains to be seen
What also remains to be seen is what the television rights for the new playoff format will look like.
On Monday, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey discussed that subject with ESPN and SEC college football analyst Paul Finebaum.
When the College Football Playoff expands, who will televise it? Commissioner Sankey offers his thoughts: pic.twitter.com/oyZE9SehHa
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) September 5, 2022
“What do we know? We know ESPN has an agreement through the 12-year cycle,” Sankey said. “That’s our reality. I think one of the really miscommunicated points was, the small committee on which I served … we all said from the beginning when we made the original presentation that for Year 13 with this 12-team format, we would fully go to market with the media rights. … We were very specific to say everybody will have the opportunity to participate.
Sankey was quick to add that no decisions will be made without all the information needed.
“Now, some cite this decision to withhold support as an attempt to leverage other media entities in,” Sankey said. “The reality was, we were always going to market. … That said, there’s no guarantee that we would go with multiple media partners. That’s certainly a possibility, but we need to see the actual proposals before we make such a decision. … That’s the right way to go about this.”
"Chris Wallace covers college football for Saturday Down South. He has covered college athletics for multiple newspapers and also worked previously for Rivals.com and GolfChannel.com."
