College Football Playoff leadership has reportedly reached an agreement on a new deal for the future.

According to reporting by ESPN’s Heather Dinich and Pete Thamel, all 10 FBS conferences and Notre Dame have agreed to the next CFP contract which will begin in 2026. Per the agreement, future fields of the Playoff will have at least 12 teams.

The exact format is to be determined though ESPN reports a “strong preference” to move to a 14-team field. A part of that format would include the 5 highest-ranked conference champions and the next 9 highest-ranked teams.

Along with the CFP contract, a new TV contract with ESPN is expected to be finalized Friday. The network is reportedly poised to spend around $1.3 billion annually for the Playoff for 6 additional seasons. The deal would include the final 2 years of the current contract in addition to a new 6-year agreement.

While fans prepare for the future, be sure to track all the latest CFP national championship odds as we head into spring practices. Be sure to follow all the latest with SDS’s online sportsbook apps.

Why it’s a win-win for everyone

According to ESPN’s reporting, the contract includes an understanding that the new SEC and Big Ten will have “the bulk of control” but noted that there will also be protective parameters “that can’t be altered.” The Group of 5 was particularly disgruntled, but that’s simply the way things have to be.

“It’s like the Godfather’s offer you can’t refuse,” one Group of 5 athletic director told ESPN on Thursday.

In the end, there’s zero reason why the Group of 5 should have a large voice in the future of the Playoff, even if that is an unwelcome reality to some.

As for the protective parameters, ESPN says the commissioners and Notre Dame agreed that conference champions from the ACC, Big Ten, SEC, Big 12 and the highest-ranked Group of 5 champ will earn Playoff bids in the new system. Notre Dame also receives some protections to be maintained in the final format.

The money aspect still matters — a lot — but this is the competitive angle we’re talking about here. And this is about as good as anyone outside the SEC and Big Ten could hope for.

As has already been talked about, those two leagues were already the cash cows for the Playoff, and that was before the landscape-altering expansion moves. Post expansion, those two leagues represent the vast majority of money-making teams in the Playoff.

The new system is a win for the rest of the country because it offers some protections for lesser leagues, a wise move by the SEC and Big Ten, even if it felt like one that was unnecessary.

In order to pull off a legitimate championship and a true Playoff, the rest of the country needs some level of protection. And the Fighting Irish especially should feel fortunate following this round of discussions.

It remains asinine that Notre Dame is an ACC — er, independent — program, and the Fighting Irish should at least acknowledge there were enough factors in play to potentially bring that to an end. Instead, Notre Dame gets protection, and the independent status is safe for now.

As for the SEC and the Big Ten, the win is a bit more obvious. The leagues are already dominating the sport, and now that domination has paved the way to real control of the sport moving forward.

How the two leagues opt to flex that control in a new CFP format will be the first thing to monitor. The protections reportedly agreed upon will certainly aid the process, but rest assured the SEC and Big Ten will push things as far as possible within those protections to their benefit.

A new era is here, and the first future contract is thankfully a win-win for everyone involved.